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SAN DIEGO – A Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command and Defense Research Engineering Network representative unveiled Internet Protocol Version Six lessons learned during a high-profile executive workshop Sept. 28, in Washington. IPv6 is the most significant upgrade in the 40-year history of the Internet.
Ronald Broersma spoke at the invitation-only event during which the Obama administration released guidelines and milestones for the transition of government networks to the next generation of Internet Protocols. The Administration also reinforced its support of the effort to spur adoption of IPv6 within the private sector as well as government.
“Our panel received some great questions and experienced a tremendous amount of interaction with the attendees,” said Broersma. “While everyone discussed the planned deployment, or how they were in various phases of deployment, we talked about how we’ve been doing it for years for the Navy and live it every day.”
To Broersma, his vast SPAWAR and DREN operational experience gave him the credibility to share lessons learned about piloting the effort – an effort that has transitioned into a fully productive IPv6 implementation.
“I think the attendees were impressed with how we could offer existing proof that IPv6 really works, and how we successfully deployed it in a production environment with minimal additional staffing or funding. We hope this can serve as a model for others to follow,” Broersma said.
A three-member panel, moderated by Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra, focused on the topic of “What the Federal Government is doing and Why” and highlighted government efforts taken to adopt and deploy IPv6. The consensus from everyone involved is that the work is on-going, and the panel discussed what can be done moving forward.
Broersma shared what the DREN is doing for the official Department of Defense IPv6 pilot, and he talked what SPAWAR’s learned from the aggressive IPv6 deployment into a production network.
One of Broersma’s workshop highlights was following his presentation when an executive from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers commented that he learned more during Broersma’s presentation than he had elsewhere in his broad experience.
The Internet is the standard communications medium for nearly all computer systems and applications. IPv4 has been the standard language for all communications on the Internet since 1983. The newer version, IPv6, was standardized during the 1990s to support the expanding needs of an Internet that was experiencing explosive growth.
SPAWAR’s effort in deploying IPv6 taught valuable lessons and gave SPAWAR and DOD a unique operational experience that will reap benefits to the Navy and across the services. The SPAWAR network also serves as an environment for government and commercial products that need to test their IPv6 implementations on a real network, rather than in a laboratory. The network also provides an IPv6-enabled environment that facilitates the development and testing of new systems for future operational deployment.
"SPAWAR Systems Center Pacific is a pioneer in deploying this new protocol in a production environment," said Broersma. "We started nearly ten years ago and are still ahead of most of the world."
A year ago, Broeserma recommended that DoD establish an 18-month deadline to have all public service websites, including public websites, public name servers, and incoming email services, available through the IPv6 protocol. His recommendation, along with many others, was heard and now the mandate is set requiring all U.S. government agencies to upgrade their public-facing websites and services by Sept. 30, 2012, to support IPv6.
"The deadline for companies to convert to the new system is fast approaching and has now gained tremendous interest," said Broersma. "Companies that fail to transition in time will lose Internet communications."
IPv6 is the most significant upgrade in the 40-year history of the Internet. Like the transition from analog to digital television, every computer on the network, and many software applications, must be upgraded to support the Obama Administration’s plan to upgrade all federal Internet sites and e-government services over the next two years to support IPv6.
Although the transition to IPv6 has been slow, Broersma hopes that after speaking at this workshop and sharing SPAWAR’s knowledge, we may help expedite the Administration’s desire for not only the government sector to adopt IPv6, but for the private sector to as well.
Broersma is scheduled to speak at the Sixth Australian IPv6 Summit Oct. 18-20 in Melbourne. Similar to this workshop, he’ll review his experience with operating and managing a large multi-campus network where everything including networks, systems and services is dual-stack, or operates IPv6-only.
| Date Taken: | 10.15.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 10.15.2010 16:41 |
| Story ID: | 58217 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 667 |
| Downloads: | 3 |
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