Evaluating IPv6 adoption in the internet

Abstract

As IPv4 address space approaches exhaustion, large networks are deploying IPv6 or preparing for deployment. However, there is little data available about the quantity and quality of IPv6 connectivity. We describe a methodology to measure IPv6 adoption from the perspective of a Web site operator and to evaluate the impact that adding IPv6 to a Web site will have on its users. We apply our methodology to the Google Web site and present results collected over the last year. Our data show that IPv6 adoption, while growing significantly, is still low, varies considerably by country, and is heavily influenced by a small number of large deployments. We find that native IPv6 latency is comparable to IPv4 and provide statistics on IPv6 transition mechanisms used.