Global IPv6 Testing Center Releases the 2017 IPv6 Support Report

BEIJING, Nov. 29, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Recently, BII-Global IPv6 Testing Center (www.ipv6ready.org.cn) released the 2017 IPv6 Support Report, providing a test, update and analysis of the support for IPv6 network devices, terminals, applications and websites worldwide. The report shows that the entire industry is ready for full access to IPv6, with support for network devices, terminal products and various applications. Among them, the network devices and terminal products gained the highest IPv6 support. There are 2137 types/series of network devices in the world that have passed the IPv6 Ready Logo Certification and over 90% of the terminal operating systems support IPv6. In addition, a small number of basic applications have been able to access IPv6 and can meet the basic needs. At present, the IPv6 support rate of the top 50 websites of Alexa rankings is 42%, and there is only one website in China among the top 50 supporting stable IPv6 access.

Network devices have extremely high IPv6 support and have been ready for full access

With the rapid deployment of IPv6 in the world, mainstream network device manufacturers have launched a large number of IPv6 products in recent years, and they are rich in product types and basically cover the original IPv4 products (including routers, switches, access servers, firewalls, VPN gateways and domain name servers, etc.), which can meet the needs of commercial deployment.

According to IPv6 Ready Logo testing and certification data, a total of 2137 types/series of devices in the world passed the IPv6 Ready Logo Phase-2 certification as of October 2017 and have been steadily increasing. Among those devices obtaining the IPv6 Ready Logo, China's routers, switches, firewalls and gateways are far ahead of other types of devices. Compared with other network device powers such as the United States, South Korea and Japan, China has a larger number of routers, switches, security devices and other devices (more than 70%), while is has relatively less applications for other device types, especially for terminal devices.

Terminal devices basically support IPv6, leaving home gateway the last checkpoint hindering the development

A company who can take the lead in making a difference in IPv6 will be able to occupy a favorable position in future competition. From the hardware point of view, the terminal products such as mobile phones and PCs launched in the past two or three years can basically fully support IPv6. However, the operating system is crucial to support IPv6 as the foundation of various applications. Therefore, the Global IPv6 Testing Center has tested the current 30 common operating system versions and results show that common operating system including mobile phones, PCs and servers can basically apply IPv6, and the support rate reaches up to 90%.

Among the 30 common operating system versions tested, Android 4.2, iOS 4.1, Windows Phone 6.5, Symbian 7.0 and other mobile phone system versions and subsequent new versions have supported IPv6.

Microsoft Windows series, Apple Mac OS X and Linux and other commonly used operating systems in PCs support IPv6, and Microsoft Windows and Redhat Linux kernel operating systems largely passed the IPv6 Ready Logo Certification, which provides a more powerful proof of IPv6 access capacity.

The overall IPv6 support of the operating system is relatively high, but there are still some differences between different operating systems in terms of concrete functions and implementation models. The operating system installed with IPv6 protocol stack as a default accounts for about 75%, the support of DHCPv6 (IPv6 dynamic host configuration protocol) is about 65% and that of ND RDNSS (Recursion DNS Server Automatic Discovery) is slightly lower, which is about 50%.

The support of home gateway CE devices is slightly backward by contrast. As an extended test item of IPv6 Ready Logo, there are only 17 CE devices from NetWare, ZTE, Broadcom and other enterprises in the world that have passed IPv6 Ready Logo CE Router Certification.

The operators are beginning to implement strict network equipment procurement requirements early and force network devices to support IPv6. However, test results show that most of the CE devices (home gateways and wireless routers, etc.) purchased by the users themselves on the market do not support IPv6, which is the key for home users to access the last mile of IPv6.

Multi-type PC applications support IPv6, which can meet the basic usage needs

The 2017 IPv6 Support Report also indicates that the IPv6-only network is still less at present due to the widespread existence of IPv4, and only a small number of applications can support IPv4 and IPv6. However, it shall be pointed out that although the overall support of application software is not high for IPv6, it can indeed meet the basic needs of common users.

Mainstream PC application software that partially supports IPv6

Overseas websites have high IPv6 support, but only one of the top 50 websites in China supports IPv6

At present, websites supporting IPv6 are on the increase, and websites such as Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft Bing now provide permanent IPv6 access service. To encourage more applications and services to support IPv6, the Global IPv6 Test Center has designed and developed IPv6 Enabled Logo Certification. In addition, statistics show that a total of 2550 websites in the world have passed the test and obtained IPv6 Enabled Logo Certification from April 2009 when the project was launched to October 2017.

The monitoring data of the Global IPv6 Testing Center also shows that IPv6 support rate of top 50 websites of Alexa rankings is 42%, and Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo and other websites can be stably accessed through IPv6. In contrast, most websites in China have no IPv6 access, and only Tencent of the top 50 websites has a stable IPv6 access address.

The Global IPv6 Testing Center subordinate to CFIEC has carried out a comprehensive test and analysis of IPv6 support from different levels such as terminals, networks and applications. According to the 2017 IPv6 Support Report, network devices, terminal devices and operations system have good IPv6 support. From the application point of view, efforts shall also be increased for upgrade due to the long-term existence of IPv4 to promote the large-scale promotion and application of IPv6, especially various websites are able to speed up the pace of access to IPv6. In addition, colleagues of the industry chain shall also pay more attention to these weaknesses to jointly promote the rapid and smooth transition of IPv6 and embrace the era of the modern day Internet.

It is hoped the future of the internet will be IPv6 based and will be a great starting point for the new internet system. Based on the IPv6 technology with enormous address space, new ideas and elements are constantly added to the new technology platform to solve major technical challenges through innovation and development. In addition, the future Internet will certainly be more intelligent through evolution and new breakthroughs, and a broader market will also be fully opened.

For free access to the full version of 2017 IPv6 Support Report, please click the link below: http://www.ipv6ready.org.cn/public/download/ipv6.pdf

SOURCE BII-Global IPv6 Testing Center