Arbor Networks traffic study: IPv6 represents .03% of total Internet traffic

Despite all the attention that has been given to dwindling IPv4 resources, IPv6 today represents considerably less than 1% of all Internet traffic—about .03%, according to data released this week from Arbor Networks. Perhaps more discouraging is Arbor Network’s finding that the vast majority of IPv6 traffic is carried through tunneling, a less efficient higher-latency alternative to native IPv6, which currently represents only about 15-20% of total IPv6.

But although these numbers might suggest that service providers, web site operators, and end users are not well prepared for IPv6, the situation is not as dire as it might appear, according to Craig Labovitz, chief scientist for Arbor Networks. In an interview, Labovitz explained that some web site operators have implemented v6 but have not made it the default option. End users that can use either IPv4 or IPv6 for connectivity have to make a special request to receive content in IPv6 form.

That situation will change, however, on June 8, when service providers and web site operators plan to participate in World IPv6 Day, an event organized by the Internet society (ISOC). On that day, Labovitz explained, participants worldwide have agreed to make IPv6 the default option for end users that can support it for a 24-hour period. Arbor Networks latest research, he said, is intended as a snapshot of the state of IPv6 prior to IPv6 Day, serving as a benchmark against which measurements taken on World IPv6 Day can be compared.

It’s difficult to predict what will happen on that day, Labovitz said. “Maybe IPv6 traffic will cross 1% or more,” he said. The industry, he said, is hoping that the results will be similar to what happened at Y2K, when there were few disruptions. “A lot of effort has gone into this ahead of time,” said Labovitz. “In the best case, no one will notice a thing and the world will suddenly be using a lot more v6.”

Default reluctance
One of the reasons web site operators have been reluctant to make IPv6 the default option is that if they do so, they may find they will be unable to reach some end users, Labovitz said. This situation, he said, could occur with end users whose equipment supports IPv6 but who have older versions of operating systems or firewall problems. On IPv6 Day, Labovitz said, the equipment belonging to these customers will attempt to communicate using IPv6 but will lose connectivity and won’t fail over to IPv4, he said.

How big is this problem likely to be? “We think it’s a small percentage,” said Labovitz. For backup, he pointed to the web site ipv6-test.com, which is designed to enable end users to test their IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity. According to data compiled by that site, Labovitz said, “some fraction of 1%” of people might encounter the problem, he said. “But if you have 50 million users, a fraction of 1% is still a problem,” he said.

P2p dominates IPv6 traffic
The Arbor Networks research also offers insight into why those end users that have begun to use IPv6 have made that decision. According to the company, more than half of IPv6 traffic (61%) is peer-to-peer, and a large part of that involves a specific application—You Torrent, a file sharing application designed to use IPv6 tunneling. As Labovitz explained, “Tunneling is an effective mechanism to bypass security, whether it’s a VPN or IPv6.”

Traditional IPv4 traffic is dominated by Netflix traffic (20%), HTTP traffic (19%), You Tube (12%), with BitTorrent file sharing traffic coming in at 8%, according to Arbor Networks.

“You would like to see the traffic profile be the same for IPv6 if IPv6 is really taking over the load from IPv4,” commented Labovitz.

Methodology
Much of Arbor Networks IPv6 traffic data is based on metrics gathered from six key customers—large network operators in North America and Europe that have agreed to share data with Arbor Networks on an aggregate basis. Arbor Networks has been measuring IPv6 traffic for several years, but this year marks the first time Arbor Networks has been able to measure native IPv6 traffic as well as tunneled traffic, Labovitz said.