IPV6 Deployment - Mauritius to benefit from Opportunities and World-wide Experiences

Abstract

The current standard protocol, IPV4, has reached its limit in terms of addressing possibilities, being limited by the 32-bits addressing scheme. Its successor, IPV6, had been devised since the mid 1990’s. In addition to handling the address limitations, IPV6 also includes a number of improved features, making it superior to IPV4 in several aspects. However, its deployment has taken much longer than expected. This paper presents how the design IPV6 improved over IPV4, the additional benefits of the new
design, and challenges faced for the deployment of IPV6. It then outlines the deployment strategies adopted by different countries. It finally discusses how Mauritius can benefit from the IPV6 deployment and what lessons it can draw from deployment experiences obtained elsewhere.