Background
The Internet Society has approximately 90 organization members. Organization members are diverse types of organizations from around the world, ranging from small companies to large corporations, Internet service providers (ISPs) to enterprises, vendors to network operators. All of these organizations operate a network of some sort and, due to their diversity, provide a wide cross section of use models for IPv6. In 2008 the Internet Society conducted a study of how organization members use IPv6 in their networks.
Internet Society organization members include various ISPs, Internet exchange point operators (IXPs), enterprises, national research and education networks (NRENs), and network equipment and software vendors. The networks they operate range from very small networks in a single office to large networks spanning multiple facilities and multiple geographical areas. The Internet Society was keen to determine the level of operational penetration that IPv6 has in these networks, to understand something of the thought processes organization members went through in evaluating the usefulness of IPv6, and to learn of their experiences in adopting it. The Internet Society was not interested in determining through the study information about specific vendors’ product capabilities or details about commercial operational differentiators. The Internet Society committed to keep the contents of the responses anonymous when presenting the results of the study.
Summary of the Study
The Internet Society conducted a few preliminary interviews with organization members to help determine how to go about collecting data, which specific kinds of information to seek out, what questions to avoid, and how to present the participation request to make the commitment and effort required by the organization members as palatable as possible. We realize that participating in such a study is an activity that is in addition to the normal responsibilities of the individuals involved, and we are very grateful for all the effort that the individuals from of our member organizations made to provide this information.
The Internet Society conducted the study by sending a questionnaire to its organization members with a request to find the appropriate individuals within the respective organizations who operate networks and have responsibility for IPv6 deployment within the organizations. The representatives of the organizations did an excellent job of getting the questionnaire into the right hands in their respective organizations. We are very pleased that people took the time to thoughtfully complete the questionnaires and also that many of the individuals who completed the questionnaire agreed to be contacted by way of follow-up for more detail.
Unsurprisingly all of the organizations that responded by completing the IPv6 Study Questionnaire are in the planning stage for IPv6 at least, and most have begun deploying IPv6 at some level. The Internet Society committed to keeping the results confidential and that any summary presentation of the results would be kept anonymous. Therefore, the results presented through public presentations and in this report do not divulge any specific information about any of the the Internet Socitey organization members.
The questionnaire had both multiple choice and open-ended questions to elicit more detailed responses from the individuals completing the questionnaire. The questionnaire had five major sections: IPv4 Utilization and Runout Questions; IPv6 Planning Questions; IPv6 Operational Questions; Recommendations for Others Intending to Deploy IPv6; and Recommendations for those not Planning to Deploy IPv6.† The following sections describe the responses to the questions.