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IPv6 traffic rises in U.S., but remains sliver of overall Internet

24.09.2012
U.S. ISPs are reporting a significant rise in IPv6 traffic during the last three months, even though the overall numbers remain tiny -- less than 1% of Internet traffic.

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is an upgrade to the Internet's addressing scheme, which was created using a protocol known as IPv4. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses and can support 4.3 billion devices connected directly to the Internet. , on the other hand, uses 128-bit addresses and can support a virtually limitless number of devices: 2 to the 128th power. IPv6 is necessary because the Internet is running out of IPv4 addresses. However, IPv6 is not backwards compatible with IPv4, requiring network operators to support both protocols at an added cost.

U.S. carriers, content providers and network companies are surging ahead of their global rivals in the push to deploy IPv6. But despite their efforts, IPv6 remains a sliver of overall Internet traffic for now.

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has deployed IPv6 across more than half of its broadband footprint in the United States and will be done upgrading the rest of its network by 2013. Currently, 2.5% of Comcast customers are using its native dual stack IPv6 broadband service, according to John Brzozowski, chief architect for IPv6 and distinguished engineer at Comcast.