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(VietNamNet Bridge)-Many countries in the world have been considering implementing the next generation of Internet Protocol – Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Meanwhile, in Vietnam, enterprises are still not aware of the necessity and importance of using new Internet addresses.

On April 15, 2011, Asia Pacific officially became the first region in the world that announced the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses. The use of the next-generation Internet addresses IPv6, developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), has become an urgent need and compulsory for all the organizations joining the Internet traffic.

The International Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ICANN believes that the shift to IPv6 would mark a milestone in the history of Internet development, and that the future of the global connection network would depend on IPv6, which is believed to have larger address space than IPv4 and described as the “the sun”, while IPv4 as “the ball.”

Analysts have pointed out that the biggest barriers that may prevent the shifting to IPv6 are the lack of the awareness of the importance of IPv6 and the support capability of device manufacturers, the labor force qualification and the costs.

High cost is always a big challenge to all agencies and organizations in all countries throughout the world, especially in Vietnam, a developing economy which has to prioritize to budget its money for the most essential and urgent needs.

However, experts believe that Vietnam has a big advantage in shifting to IPv6 – the high compatibility of IPv6 with existing devices.

Being a dynamic market, devices and technologies have been updated regularly, which allows Vietnam to catch up with the world’s technological trend. Therefore, unlike other countries, compatibility would not be a big barrier for Vientam.

The bigger problem for Vietnam, according to the experts, is the lack of the awareness of Vietnamese Internet enterprises about the issue.

According to VNNIC (Vietnam Internet Network Information Center), Vietnam appeared very soon on the map of IPv6 assignment with the first IPv6 address region assigned in 2004 already. At some moments, Vietnam led the regional countries in the number of IPv6 address zones assigned. However, the percentage of used addresses remains modest.

Meanwhile, relevant ministries and branches keep indifferent to the shifting, while the implementation of IPv6 needs a comprehensive plan and requires comprehensive strength from all subjects in the society.

In the mind of many organizations and individuals, upgrading to IPv6 proves to be the thing that needs to be undertaken by Internet Service Providers ISP and state’s management agencies.

The Ministry of Information and Communication and IPv6TF, a steering committee in charge of enhancing the development of IPv6, are considering a workshop on the issue in the time to come, in an effort to heighten people’s awareness of the issue.

Leading ISPs and leading websites in the globe namely Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Bing have made a long term commitment on shifting to use IPv6 from June 6, 2012.

AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable are among the seven ISPs which have committed to begin IPv6 from the above mentioned date. All the companies and websites stated that they are adapting to the deadline at an event World IPv6 Launch held on January 17, 2012.

The fact that leading companies in different industries have committed to IPv6 shows that IPv6 is no longer an experiment. This should be seen as a considerable progress in the Internet development process.