World IPv6 Takes a Test Flight

Published on Wednesday, 08 June 2011

Today on 8 June 2011, Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Akamai and Limelight Networks and other
organisations are offering their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour test flight. The address space
used by the current version of the Internet protocol, IPv4, is expected to run out in 2011.

   
World IPv6 day is a global-scale test flight of IPv6 sponsored by the Internet Society. On World IPv6 Day, major web companies and other industry players will join to enable IPv6 on their main websites for 24 hours. The goal of the Test Flight Day is to motivate organizations across the industry – Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies – to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.

Without action, Internet users risk increased costs and limited functionality online. A long-term solution to this problem is adoption of IPv6, which provides over 4 billion times more space. IPv6 is used extensively in many large networks, but it has never been enabled at a global scale. World IPv6 Day is expected to help industry players work together to support the new protocol on an accelerated timeline. With major web companies committing to enable IPv6 on their main websites, there are strong incentives for other industry players to ensure their systems are prepared for the transition. www.worldipv6day.org