Network (CVISNET), and University of the Philippines Cebu, held the IPv6 Unleashed: the 2^nd Philippine IPv6 Conference and Training workshop, in Cebu city.

The event was opened through a welcome remarks by DOST VII Regional Director, Rene Burt Llanto, and followed by local and international speakers from different organizations. Among the  speakers that presented their expertise and case studies are;  Anna Mulingbayan, Senior Internet Resource Analyst of the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APAN);  Azlan Osman, Deputy Director of Industry and Community Network of the National Advanced IPv6 Centre of Excellence (Nav6); Tomoya Yoshida, Deputy General Manager of the Technology Department of Internet Multifeed; Ashish Kapahi, Advisor, IAP and Visiting Researcher of NAV6 and University of Sains Malaysia,  Raymond Nunez, professor from the University of he Philippines (UP)- Diliman campus and  Director for IT security of Chikka; and Lawrence Hughes, Director and CEO of Infoweapons.

The rest of the afternoon was dedicated for a Knowledge Management activity  which was held to capture the issues and possible solutions towards IPv6 migration in the Philippines. Three major issues/groups were created to make an Open Space, and the groups include, Technical issues, Capability building, and Management issues/Marketing to Policy makers. A Press Conference was also held for the local media of Cebu which was attended by fourteen (14) people from seven (7) media groups,  including GMA-7 Cebu, Philippine Information Agency Region 7, DYAB Radio Patrol Cebu, The Freeman, Sunstar, DYHB Radio Bacolod and Manila Bulletin Cebu.

Status update

According to Mulingbayan, the main driver for deploying IPv6 addresses in the Asia Pacific region is the exhaustion. She also said that Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (Internet registry in Asia Pacific)  has fully exhausted the IPv4 address as of April 2011, mainly because some of its member countries has the largest population in the world, namely China, India, Indonesia. The increased need in these largely populated countries also adds to the exhaustion. One of the difficulties encountered in migration according to APNIC members are lack of support and budget from the management.  She added that in order to support its members with its pending issues, APNIC has various services. In their web portal, members can ask richability testing, and access help desk services. In her talk, Mulingbayan also shared recent policies being implemented by APNIC, training statistics, inter-governmental activities, and other activities held by APNIC for its members such as  conferences.

Some Lessons learned and Best practices on IPv6.

Malaysia

Malaysia is one of the fastest moving countries in South East Asia. As mentioned in the talk of Mr. Azlan Osman  of (NAV6), the world is moving fast towards IPv6 due to its depletion. In the case study presented by Director Osman, The National Strategic Research  and Development Roadmap to IPv6 of Malaysia was completed in December 2008. “The National government of Malaysia established Nav6 to guide the government on the transition to IPv6,” he added. Activities that were held under the roadmap are; worldwide initiatives, identification of stakeholders and their roles towards the IPv6 strategy, success indicators of the same, pilot projects, organized meetings and conferences for the stakeholders, among other things. However, some applications are maintained under IPv4. “Some applications are not meant to be migrated to IPv6 and we did not migrate it.”  Osman said.

Japan

 In Japan's case study towards IPv6 migration. Mr. Tomoya Yoshida said that most Internet Service Providers (ISPs) have already been using IPv6, including NTT and Docomo, two of the biggest in their country in terms of usage of IP addresses. Through the use of an internet exchange, Japan Network Access Point (JPNAP), these two ISPs and other local ISPs have met and identified strategies towards successfully utilizing IPv6 and migration. Mr. Yoshida added that most carriers used tunneling, some have also used native IPv6. Mr. Yoshida gave different pieces of advice to target people on IPv6 migration issues, particularly for the Network Service Providers. He said that due to the depletion, they need to get their network ready for IPv6, and they need to provide IPv6 addresses to their customers. For vendors  and manufacturers of equipment, they should get their machines ready for IPv6. Content providers/website holders on the other hand, should make their servers and DNSs ready for IPv6. Lastly, end users and clients need to get their PCs, OS, mobile phones, and home appliances ready for IPv6, he added.

Philippines (academe and Private industry)

In an academic setting, Professor Raymond Nunez,  shared UP's case study on IPv6 migration. He said that UP started back in year 2001 through an experiment between DOST-ASTI, then in 2008 it activated Boarder Gateway Protocol (BGP) peering. Only after 2008 when UP issued a memo that it should buy device that are IPv6 capable. In 2011, it was able to successfully implement the dual-stack technique  as a successful means to deploy IPv6 in the campus. Eventually, the university trained its technical people from other UP campuses to manage IPv6 deployment.            

Some migration strategies shared by Professor Nunez are; gateway experiments, trial of tunneling and dual-stack (which is recently being implemented by UP) in IPv6 deployment. Allocating certain manpower for migration such as an Architect/Designer, Network Administrator, and Junior Systems Administrator and training and certifying as IPv6 experts, also helps answer problems in migration. To contibute in capability building of future experts, the UP College of Engineering, offers an IPv6 subject to the students by including it in their academic curriculum. As for the private sector, Professor Nunez said that the dual stack method worked for the university, so he applied the same technique with Chikka, a Philippine-based wireless application service provider.

IPv6 Products and Services

Lawrence Hughes shared some information on products and services that are IPv6 ready. According to him an IPv6 Shopping list can now be found through google. Most of these products are certified and has a logo of IPv6 ready. “Certification of products,” he continued, “can be done through IPv6 certification centers.”

Ashish Kapahi showed different types of training courses and certifications offered to IT professionals by NAV6. Some of these trainings are for Network Engineers and Programers, while other trainings are intended for those who manage Network security. These trainings are intended as similar to a training the trainers program and will be run under an Authorized Training Model. After each training, the participants may apply for a certification from a recognized certification institution in their country through an examination, in order to be a certified IPv6 expert.  As of present, NAV6 is currently establishing a certifying institutions in the Philippines by forming partnerships with the same.

A Closer Look on IPv6 Developments in the Philippines

As explained by Mr. Osman the last block of IPv4 was already distributed last February 2014, and therefore he said, people should be considering migration. To add on this, Mr. Yoshida said that in IPv6 migration, customers can be converted one by one, customers need not to purchase any new hardware until at some stage of conversion, and IPv6 will eventually become mainstream and IPv4 will just be used for backward compatibility. Mr. Hughes on the other hand said that Filipinos may undergo consultation on IPv6 migration to Infoweapons in Cebu city. There is no need to go to another country to consult for migration.

DOST- ASTI has started with IPv6 since 1999. Since then, it has been active in participating with helping the Filipino community. Through trainings, events, partnership activities, it aims to increase the knowledge of the Filipinos on IPv6 migration and management. It has spearheaded events such as the first Philippine IPv6 summit, and IPv6 Conference and Trainings in the Manila area and other regions. Through its continuous partnership with the APNIC, and other IPv6 driven organizations  and companies, such as Information and Communication Technology Office (of DOST),  Internet Society (ISOC), IPv6 Forum Philippines, University of the Philippines, Infoweapons, Globe Telecommunications, Ray Networks, and CVISNET, it was able to successfully hold IPv6 related activities. As of present  260 Information Technology (IT) professionals were already trained by DOST-ASTI, and 1,016 have attended the information dissemination activities since 2008.

The Philippines Research, Education, Government Information Network (PREGINET), or the National Research Network (NREN) of the Philippines,  which is being managed by DOST-ASTI is IPv6 enabled via dual stack. DOST-ASTI aims to have more partners connected through this NREN. Furthermore, it also aims  to give more technical trainings through its training unit and network with more IPv6 enthusiasts through partnerships, and to connect more local networks through Philippine Open IX. It is also aiming for more funding from DOST for an IPv6 interoperability laboratory.

IPv6 Launch: IPv6 Day Celebration on June 6, 2012

As the event is also a jump-off activity for the upcoming celebration of the IPv6 Launch on June 6, 2012, the results of the Open Space activity will be used for a Communities of Practice (CoP) to be done on the same date. The celebration intends to gather opinions of ISPs, experts, policy makers, and other IPv6 enthusiasts that are working mainly towards IPv6 migration, and similar tasks. It also aims to strengthen the network of Philippine Open IX members.

Note: Information about the IPv6 launch on June 6 may be inquired through This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it