Main Points:

• IPv6 transition has been ongoing for 25 years but only slightly over one-third of the Internet's user base can access IPv6-only services.
• IPv6 was designed to address IPv4 address exhaustion but did not offer significant improvements in protocol use and performance.
• The transition was slow due to various factors such as resource allocation priorities, the decentralized nature of the Internet, and the lack of a rich set of IPv6 content and services.
• NATs played a significant role in alleviating IPv4 address scarcity but also created challenges such as NAT behavior variance.
• The Internet architecture has shifted away from a strict address-based model, reducing the importance of IPv6 for end-user service delivery.
• The transition to IPv6 is progressing slowly as networks and network operators face challenges in justifying the investment in a dual-stack platform.

Key Information:

• RFC 2460 was published in 1998 for IPv6 specification.
• IPv6 adoption report shows slow growth from 2014 to 2024.
• 6to4 and Teredo had issues with failure rates and NAT traversal.
• Mobile industry's transition to 4G enabled IPv6.
• NATs made efficient use of address space and server sharing reduced IPv4 address pressure.
• Market price of IPv4 addresses has stabilized.
• Changes in Internet architecture led to a shift away from address-based model.
• CDNs have expanded and eliminated the factor of distance in content delivery.
• The role of the network has diminished and value has shifted to applications.

Important Details:

• IANA depleted the central IPv4 address pool in 2011 and APNIC ran out in 2011.
• By 2012, IPv6 deployment rose to 17.4% but the transition plan was largely broken.
• The latest Apple M3 chip has 92 billion transistors.
• Storage unit costs have been dropping exponentially for decades.
• Fiber capacity per wavelength has increased due to silicon improvements.
• Only 47% of the top 1000 websites are reachable over IPv6 in the US.
• TLS is the sole underpinning of authenticity in the Internet.
• RPKI is not useful in a service network without routing.
• Geoff Huston is the Chief Scientist at APNIC.