IPv6 - Third world networkers catching up

So for the last couple of months I've been thinking hard and working out what I think are major issues with IPv6 adoption within EA.

First of all the regulators in the industry are a major barrier to driving some technologies forward. This is especially so for 'new' stuff that doesn't seem to be making money directly. (*this happens everywhere,  justifying network spend is not easy in an organization, but governments and policy makers are there not for profit so I expect more from them).

The competitive environment among the major players eg Safaricom and Airtel makes it quite difficult for collaboration. Without collaboration what might once have been an easy task suddenly becomes a major issue. I don't mind the politics, but a line has to be drawn somewhere.

If there's one thing I miss about working in a pure ISP environment, it was the easy time we had just being able to chat with our 'rivals' technical people about technology. In telco's, even localized within organization collaboration is really difficult.

What might help:
An open membership forum/working group along the likes of go6 in slovania, for a small country <3M, thay have done quite alot with IPv6.

The membership would be open to ISP's, telcoms, regulators, big corporations, an expert council - to steer things, universities and tertiary colleges and individuals within the region. I say region because the challenges are different and we need to learn from our own experiences while borrowing from others who have done this before.

The main goal would probably be to publicize IPv6, arrange for more training along different lines eg applications, networking, System administration etc. They would host local ipv6 deployment labs, an ipv6 academy etc.

They would ensure that people are talking about IPv6. Help with deployments, put together the information for everyone to access, bring the competitors together, bring government to the table, help universities update their offerings etc etc.


Why do East Africans need IPv6 - well because we are part of the world. Guys are doing alot in this area. I know we are doing quite a bit, but the 'alot' we are doing needs to start being deployed with executive blessings - not some enthusiastic techies working alone during their 'free' time.

I keep insisting that if you are an operator with more than 500K subscribers (Safaricom,Airtel,Zuku), offering multiplay services then you need IPv6. It's clean, ensures end to end connectivity for your services, and its cheaper in the long run , you definately need it more urgently than everyone else. How do you think you'll sell connectivity to all those sensors, set top boxes, home automation stuff,handsets,pos's, atm's etc etc that will mainly ride on wireless networks?

Thinking about it, one of them should come out and sponsor monthly IPv6 meetups.

If you are a network designer/sysadmin/programmer, make sure whatever you design is IPv6 ready. Do not for instance buy from a vendor with no support (not roadmap) for IPv6. Do not build a new data center without an IPv6 plan (believe me I saw one very recently).

Go to afnog, so far it offers the best forum for expression. Unfortunately it happens once a year hence the need for something a little bit different. See you there on Tuesday.

8 June, 2011 - World IPv6 Day

I hate that this blog hasn't focused a lot more on ipv6. I take solace in the fact that mobile networks are not going to ipv6 soon (mainly out of ignorance if you ask me), Infact I suspect they will have to be forced to use it since no one will be thinking about it if the decision is left to the guys I see making current decisions in the telco space (imagine if apple released an IPv6 only iphone).

Mobile operators stand to benefit the most from IPv6 mainly from M2M applications/communications. Incidentally People so afraid of change are unfortunately in charge of moving us forward (from the regulator to the operators). Focus on mobile number portability has wasted lots of time. a few people saw it as the dead end it seems to be.

Its a clear case of the blind leading the sighted:-) I see it in the whole industry, there's alot of talk in mailing lists about 'issues' but no action *Please read disclaimer below if you're about to rant*. Politics doesn't get work done.

It will be a consultants field day:-) when IPv6 gets forced on the networks. Closer to home, we have some internet peering but dont have a single service on IPv6 (2c0f:fe38::/32): from the cable and wireless looking glass you'll find us represented:-) I would really like to have some IPv6 pdp contexts activated, an IPv6 dmz, to test end to end mobile IPv6.

inet6.0: 5546 destinations, 31745 routes (5535 active, 0 holddown, 14 hidden)
+ = Active Route, - = Last Active, * = Both

2c0f:fe38::/32     *[BGP/170] 2w3d 09:10:07, MED 0, localpref 80
                      AS path: 6453 33771 I
                    > to 2001:5002:100:4::2 via ae0.1404

* so yes our network is IPv6 ready, we can definately provide IPv6 connectivity but we again haven't really tested any service - yet, and you wont have many places to 'go' to that areipv6 enabled. I however wish you'd begin testing. Believe me you'll save money in the near future.

we haven't progressed the IPv6 initiative as much as we should have in Kenya either, the network guys seem ready. The local exchange point has a bunch of us IPv6 peering, but we as yet have no applications running on it - apart from DNS and hmm I wonder if the google global cache reachable through KIXP is IPv6 enabled.


tracing to the ipv6.google.com uses our international link so I guess not, or I used the wrong fqdn.

Primary#traceroute ipv6 ipv6.google.com

Type escape sequence to abort.
Tracing the route to 2A00:1450:8002::93

  1 2001:5A0:C00:100::35 [AS 6453] 292 msec
    2001:5A0:C00:100::15 224 msec
    2001:5A0:C00:100::35 248 msec
  2 2001:5A0:2A00:100::1 [AS 6453] 180 msec 180 msec 180 msec
  3 2001:5A0:2000:400::2 [AS 6453] 188 msec 188 msec 184 msec
  4 2A01:3E0:FFF0:400::D [AS 6453] 188 msec 188 msec 188 msec
  5 2A01:3E0:FF80:100::9 [AS 6453] 200 msec 196 msec 196 msec
  6 2A01:3E0:FF20::3A [AS 6453] 196 msec 220 msec 196 msec
  7 2001:7F8::3B41:0:1 [AS 6453] 200 msec 228 msec 200 msec
  8 2001:4860::1:0:10 [AS 6453] 228 msec 200 msec 200 msec
  9 2001:4860::1:0:8 [AS 6453] 208 msec 208 msec 204 msec
 10 2001:4860::8:0:2AC3 [AS 6453] 212 msec 212 msec 212 msec
 11 2001:4860::2:0:87D [AS 6453] 212 msec 208 msec 220 msec
 12 2001:4860:0:1::25 [AS 6453] 216 msec
    2001:4860:0:1::23 212 msec
    2001:4860:0:1::25 220 msec
 13 2A00:1450:8002::93 [AS 6453] 208 msec 212 msec 208 msec

I hope and wish to have a full IPv6 DMZ (dns,smtp,ntp,pop,www,wap,looking glass etc) by the IPV6 day.

So...scoot over to the isc . its important to note here that whether we like it or not, among others, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Cisco, Akamai Technologies, Limelight Networks, W3C, Bing (Microsoft), Tom's Hardware, Rackspace, Verizon, and Juniper have committed to participating in the experiment (wikipedia).We will all participate if our users visit sites affiliated with the networks above. so we might as well do something about our infrastructure.

what are you doing about it?

I am not directly responsible for this infrastructure at work anymore but I'll definately make a concerted effort to ensure our customers don't get caught off guard. and now Im sleepy:-)