Internet Protocol Version 6: Dead or Alive?

TL;DR

This paper argues that IPv6 has failed to achieve widespread adoption, is effectively dead, and should be replaced by newer ID-based protocols that offer better features and easier deployment.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive comparison of IPv6 with alternative protocols and reasons for IPv6's lack of adoption, advocating for a shift to newer protocols.

Findings

IPv6 has not been widely adopted after 20 years.

IPv6 is considered a dead protocol by the author.

New ID-based protocols offer better features and easier deployment.

Abstract

Internet Protocol (IP) is the narrow waist of multilayered Internet protocol stack which defines the rules for data sent across networks. IPv4 is the fourth version of IP and first commercially available for deployment set by ARPANET in 1983 which is a 32 bit long address and can support up to 232 devices. In April 2017, all Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) confirmed that IPv4 addresses are exhausted and cannot be allocated anymore implying any new organization requesting a block of Internet addresses will be allocated IPv6. This creates troubles of interoperability, migration and deployment, and therefore organizations hesitated to use IPv6 borrowing IPv4 addresses from other big organizations instead. Currently, when IPv4 is not available, and IPv6 is not adopted for around 20 years, the question arises whether IPv6 will still be accepted by the computer society or will it have an end of life soon with alternate better protocol such as ID based networks taking its place. This paper claims that IPv6 has lost its deployment window and can be safely skipped when new ID based protocols are available which not only have simple interoperability, deployment and migration guidelines but also provide advanced features as compared to IPv6. The paper provides answers to these questions with a comprehensive comparison of IPv6 with its available alternatives and reasons of IPv6 failures in its adoption. Finally, the paper declares IPv6 as a dead protocol and suggests to use newer available protocols in future.