[nycbug-talk] IPv6 in Japan

[Isaac Levy]

Hi All,

So after Tokyo, as I process the overload, there's one special thing  
that I've brought back, that I'm now consumed by:

IPv6 (in America).

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Here's 4 reasons why:

1) MORE SCARY STATS (reality check?):
Jun Murai gave an amazing talk titled "BSD for the Internet, the  
Internet for BSD".  In the talk, he discussed the following slide:

http://diversaform.com/asiabsdcon2007/index-Pages/Image128.html

IPv4 netblocks:
/8 = 16,777,214 usable addresses
Approx. 50 /8 remaining
Approx. 10 /8 consumed annually

That means IANA predicts complete IPv4 pool exhaustion July, 2011.   
Noteworthy, the US is cited as the largest annual consumer of IPv4  
addresses.
This email is being written in 2007, the first NYC*BUG meeting was  
what, 3 + years ago?

Regardless of weather or not it pans out according to the predicted  
graph, it's inevitable we're all going to hit a wall eventually in  
America.


2) HUMBLING EXPERIENCES:
Wifi hotspots in Tokyo gave me problems.  OK, so finding an open AP  
was simple- it's an understatement to say Tokyo is totally wired...
However, I had serious problems connecting to my systems in NY,  
because many WiFi hotspots gave me IPv6 routes!  I was totally typing  
all thumbs!  Sitting there with my mac, I had no clue how to find DNS  
servers- let alone tunnel to my networks back home, on the IPv4  
internet.

All I could think to do was use ping6 and traceroute6 to confirm I  
really was touching IPv6 router(s).

That was truly humbling- and somehow really titillating at the same  
time.

Not only can you get real IPv6 internet to your home, you can get  
100mbit connections to your home for approximately $80usd/mo.  Makes  
me want to cry.


3) NNT Do Co Mo:
The Japanese wireless telephone company, to my understanding after  
various IPv6 lectures at AsiaBSDCon, uses an IP backbone- an IPv6  
backbone, to be precise.  The Japanese networks are therefore  
exremely modular, scalable, adaptable, and use open standard  
infrastructure.  Wow.

The end result is that everyone uses the internet from their  
cellphone without thinking it's special.  I mean, we use the internet  
from our phones too, but even a search engine homepage takes about 90  
seconds to load on my Cingular/At&T phone- unusable.
Their phones look more like personal computing to me.  They listen to  
their music on their phones, (instead of buying music from their  
phone company)- I mean Do Co Mo really seems to be focused on  
everything our US telcos are not: providing solid infrastructure for  
people to use- (as opposed to focusing on selling content to customers).


4) BSD, Kame stack:
So, as it's widely understood by many of us, and repeated in all the  
IPv6 related talks at the conference, the Kame project for an IPv6  
network stack, was led by the BSD developers in Japan.  With that,  
*BSD is everywhere in Japan, on all scales- from embedded gear to  
satellites and network backbones.

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Returning to America,

it all felt like some kind of dream.  Back to the old grind of  
running *BSD in a Windows and Linux dominated IT market.  Back to an  
IT workplace where Cingular has root on my cellphone- and that phone  
has little meaningful connection to the rest of my IT world.

Back to IPv4, back to ADSL in Brooklyn.  Back to 5mbps at my colo  
facility.  Back to T1 speeds at client offices.  Well, at least I  
know how to get DNS servers.

But I'm depressed.  I'm exited.  I'm depressed.  I'm exited!

I'm going to do something about it...  Anyone want to dive in  
headfirst with me?

Rocket-
.ike