The European Network and Information Security Agency (Enisa)
has become the first EU Agency to delivers its web site content
over the new internet protocol IPv6.
Very few organisations have adopted the new protocol, which
provides 3.4×1038 possible internet addresses, even though the
present IPv4 addressing scheme, with four billion addresses, is
running out of addresses.
IPv6 is
considered essential to implementing "ambient intelligence"
networks or "the internet of things". It allows for
auto-configuration, so that users can add a new device to a network
simply by plugging it in.
Applications such as virtual private networks, voice over
internet protocols (VoIPs) and peer-to-peer networking should also
be easier to handle and allow more functions.
This is expected to lead to new mobile and wireless applications
and services that might be too complicated or costly to do with
IPv4.
Last year Enisa
assessed
IPv6, DNSSec (a security extension to the internet's Domain Name
System for resolving domain names and IP addresses) and
Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) regarding their potential to
increase network resilience.
Andrea Pirotti, Enisa's out-going executive director, said
Enisa's move was the organisation following its own recommendations
to take advantage of the technological and resiliency features they
offer.
Bosco Fernandes, former coordinator of the EC steering committee
task force on IPv6 and member of the ITU executive board, said
users were finally appreciating the need to deploy IPv6. "It is a
high priority topic in the telecom industry as well as for 3GPP,
ITU and the UMTS Forum," he said.
ENISA deployed native IPv6 connectivity at its internet service
provider and enabled Domain Name System (DNS) resolution and Hyper
Text Transfer Protocol/Secure (HTTP/S) service delivery over
IPv6.