VietNamNet Bridge – As the address space of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is becoming full, IT experts have advised national Internet control agencies to gradually use IPv6. Deputy Minister of Information and Communications Le Nam Thang said recently that Vietnam was ready to use IPv6.

Deputy Minister Le Nam Thanh (middle) in a recent online talk with VietNamNet’s readers.

Regional Internet registry organisations (RIR) have officially said that IPv4 address resources will be completely exhausted in the next 2-4 years. RIRs have called for governments to promptly invest in and pay attention to implementing IPv6.

Deputy Le Nam Thang said Vietnam has been preparing for the switch from IPv4 to IPv6 for a long time. The Vietnam Internet Network Information Centre (VNNIC) tested IPv6 very early and released warnings to the community about the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses.

Thang also said Vietnamese Internet service providers (ISPs) had been granted IPv6 addresses and are ready to provide them for the community.

In May 2008, the Ministry of Information and Communication (MoIC) issued an instruction on promoting the use of new-generation Internet addresses (IPv6). The National IPv6 Task Force was set up to implement IPv6 in Vietnam.

The official said the MoIC has told related agencies to develop a trial network and the national IPv6 network and asked agencies that use funding from the state budget to use IPv6.

The Vietnam Post and Telecommunications Group (VNPT) and the Quang Trung Software Park have asked for IPv6 addresses. The VNNIC also signed an agreement with VNPT on connecting to the IPv6 network.

IPv6 is an Internet Layer protocol for packet-switched internetworks. IPv4 is currently the dominant Internet Protocol version, and was the first to receive widespread use. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has designated IPv6 as the successor to version 4 for general use on the Internet.

IPv6 has a much larger address space than IPv4, and provides flexibility in allocating addresses and routing traffic. The extended address length (128 bits) is intended to eliminate the need for network address translation to avoid address exhaustion, and also simplifies aspects of address assignment and renumbering when changing Internet connectivity providers.

H.C