Comcast reveals IPv6 targets

US cable operator Comcast plans to have IPv6 available to all its customers by mid-2013, its Distinguished Engineer & Chief Architect for IPv6 John Brzozowski, told an audience at the Broadband World Forum. Brzozowski said that Comcast’s plan was to deploy IPv6 incrementally, and the priority was to ensure that it would not affect its customers’ experience.  “We are not going to die the death of 1000 cuts,” he said.

Currently 50 per cent of its customer base can access IPv6 he said, but he revealed only one per cent of its total traffic was IPv6 end-to-end. However, that represents a growth of 375 per cent from June 2011. A year later, in June 2012, Comcast participated in World IPv6 Day, which Brzozowski said helped “move the needle,” as far as IPv6 usage was concerned, with all of Comcast’s goals achieved in advance of the 6 June 2012 deadline. The destination of most traffic was YouTube and Netflix.

Brzozowski said he expected to see a significant increase in IPv6 usage by the end of the year, and conservatively estimated that 10 per cent of its customers would be using IPv6 by the end of 2013.

Internally, all of Comcast’s services are IPv6 ready and, using a home-grown metric platform, Brzozowski said the firm had found evidence that it improved network efficiency.

One of the bottlenecks for IPv6 adoption he said was in the home, due to many internet connected consumer electronics devices such as TVs and Blu-ray players not being IPv6 capable. To counter this, Brzozowski said he has joined a working group of the Consumer Electronics Association in order to help educate the industry.  There was much interest in the issue he said, but still a good deal of work to be done.