IPv6 adoption still lagging as carriers prepare for testing day

Network management firm Arbor Networks will work with service providers around the world to use its monitoring tools to help gauge native IPv6 traffic on World IPv6 Day on 8 June.

World IPv6 Day is designed to test preparedness for the new format, and will see service providers enable support for native IPv6 as a way to test network infrastructure responses to the new protocol.

"IPv6 represents a major and critical evolutionary step for the internet," said Arbor Networks chief scientist Craig Labovitz.

"Arbor, in collaboration with carriers around the world, looks forward to providing key measurements of the first large-scale, global production test of IPv6 on 8 June."

The company said in a recent report that companies have been slow to adopt IPv6 over the past three years. Peer-to-peer traffic is the most common use for IPv6, accounting for 61 per cent of the total in February.

"Despite 15 years of IPv6 standards development, vendor releases and advocacy, only a small fraction of the internet has adopted IPv6," Arbor said.

"The slow rate of IPv6 adoption stems from equal parts of technical/design hurdles, lack of economic incentives and general dearth of IPv6 content."