Last week, ARIN participated in Interop Las Vegas, home of the network virtuosos, and we were delighted to hear that hardware vendors are not just implementing IPv6 compatibility for their network equipment, some are even putting IPv6 compatibility in their sales pitches! The world is becoming increasingly aware of the need for IPv6, and we are thrilled to see Interop folks leading the way.

With each new Interop show, we have been pleased at the steady increase in IPv6 awareness, but this year takes the cake! Not only did we have a record number of visitors at the ARIN booth, but many attendees stopped by specifically to update us on their IPv6 progress and to seek advice to keep their growing pains to a minimum.

Most show-goers were well versed in the need to deploy IPv6, thanks in part to the extensive trade show outreach conducted in recent years by ARIN staff, our social media and Public Policy Meeting marketing, and good old word of mouth. We were pleased to see that the Interop agenda included two IPv6-centric sessions to get attendees’ tuned in to the urgent need to dual-stack their networks and prepare for the future.

The IPv4 global free pool depleted over a year ago, and our friends at RIPE NCC and APNIC are managing the distribution of their final /8s. ARIN is not far behind, but common refrain we heard from attendees was a concern that they have delayed work on IPv6 because they thought it was hard to get. We were happy to let then know that obtaining an IPv6 address block from ARIN is actually a simple and straightforward process.

We were overjoyed to hear so much IPv6 discussion at the Interop show, but we know that Interop does not represent the entire Internet technical community. If you work for or know of an organization that is not on the path to deploying IPv6, let us know! We are happy to help you get them up to speed with informational presentations, handouts, videos, etc. We can even provide a speaker to present to them in-person. Simply put, an IPv4-only website is only on a subset of the Internet, and is invisible to any IPv6-only networks or users, a rapidly growing group. When it comes to IPv6 adoption, there is no time like the present, and we are here to help you get started.

If you are interested in obtaining your first IPv6 block, visit ARIN’s resource request section and see just how easy it can be to get your initial allocation or assignment. Once you are ready to get your feet wet, check out our IPv6 Wiki and last year’s IPv6 Summer Reading List blog for helpful advice, informative presentations, and real-world IPv6 adoption stories. If you have any questions, feel free to email us at info@arin.net.

A big thank you goes out to all those who came to us with great feedback and questions, and we will see you at Interop New York this October!

Companies are developing different solutions for IPv6 deployment – here is a blog from a Microsoft Engineer that explains a bit about the approach they have chosen. How is your organization implementing IPv6?

Guest blog post by Gregg O’Brien

It’s no secret by now that IPv6 is the way of the future. Many IT/Network administrators know that they will inevitably be required to start moving towards IPv6 sooner or later, but the idea of migrating servers, applications, and network infrastructure is a large undertaking.

Fortunately, along with IPv6 came a series of transition technologies including ISATAP to make the switch to IPv6 easier.

ISATAP stands for Intra Site Automatic Tunneling Address Protocol and is defined in RFC 5214. ISATAP is an interface that hosts can use to pass IPv6 traffic over IPv4 networks. It does this by taking an IPv6 frame and applying headers to the frame with IPv4 network information. The hosts can then send this frame over the network to an IPv6 host, which can then process the IPv6 frame contained therein.

ISATAP is pretty easy to recognize. Its addresses are formatted in a very unique way. Here is an example of an ISATAP address:
2002:9D36:1:2:0:5EFE:192.168.12.9

If you look closely, you will notice that the first portion of the address, 2002:9D36:1:2:0:5EFE: is formatted like a typical IPv6 address. The subsequent portion of the address looks like an IPv4 address – 192.168.12.9. The format of this address provides some key information:

1) It is a valid IPv6 address that can be used for IPv6 communication

2) The presence of the IPv4 address indicates the IPv4 information that will be used to shuttle the IPv6 traffic over the IPv4 network.

But why would we want to transport IPv6 traffic over the IPv4 network? Why not just continue using IPv4 then?

Well, the idea here is to facilitate transition to IPv6. Consider the following scenario:

An existing IPv4 network in place with several hosts and applications.

Investing in overhauling the infrastructure to accommodate IPv6 is a longer term project, but the goal is to do as much with IPv6 now, to save work later.

ISATAP can help here allowing IPv6 networks and IPv4 networks to talk to each other. So as the network expands, new hosts and network gear can deployed with IPv6 instead of IPv4, but still communicate with the legacy IPv4 portions of the network.

Here we now have two segments of the network, one running IPv4, the other running IPv6. With the use of an ISATAP router and by enabling ISATAP on the hosts present in the IPv4 network, native IPv6 can be deployed on the new network segment. As time passes and hardware/applications are decommissioned, the IPv4 network can be phased out until the organization is fully operational on IPv6.

Hopefully that gives you some ideas about how to get an IPv6 project started in your own environment using IPv6!

Whether you got stuck in the office and couldn’t be with us at ARIN 31 or you took part in the Public Policy and Member Meeting, we have pulled together a high-level summary of the event below.  Don’t forget to check out our ARIN 31 photo gallery in the middle of this post, and click through to the full meeting report, complete with presentations, summary notes, webcast archives, and transcripts.

ARIN 31 was a big success.  Responses from people who took our meeting survey included statements like these:

“I was very impressed by the content and level of engagement from the community.”

“One of the best-run meetings I’ve ever attended.”

“This was my first ARIN meeting, and I was impressed at how well ARIN has aligned execution with its underlying principles.”

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We accomplished many important items at ARIN 31 from fruitful policy proposal discussions to informative updates from Internet industry experts. Policy discussions were conducted on the following proposals:

ARIN-2012-2: IPv6 Subsequent Allocations Utilization Requirement

ARIN-2013-1: Section 8.4 Transfer Enhancement

ARIN-2013-2: 3GPP Network IP Resource Policy

ARIN-2013-3: Tiny IPv6 Allocations for ISPs

Participants enjoyed presentations on a variety of topics like: Internet governance, delegated RPKI, news from the global Internet resource community, ARIN’s pending fee schedule, BCOP, Deploy360, and ARIN department, Board, and AC updates.

To reference ALL the details about what happened at ARIN 31 including the date, agenda item, speaker, discussion notes, transcript, webcast archive (Quicktime) and Presentations (PDF or PPTX), please refer to our full meeting report broken down by day:

Day 1 Report (Monday, 22 April 2013)

Day 2 Report (Tuesday, 23 April 2013)

Day 3 Report (Wednesday, 24 April 2013)

Thank you to all on-site and remote participants who helped work together toward shaping number resource policy that affects the entire Internet community.  Your involvement continues to be very important.

Save the date for 4 June for our next Public Policy Consultation in New Orleans during NANOG 58 and for 10-11 October when we’ll be taking ARIN 32 to Phoenix, Arizona!

Couldn’t make it to the INET event in Denver a couple weeks ago hosted by the Colorado Chapter of the Internet Society? Lucky for you, the event was recorded and all presentations are now online.  We’d like to draw your attention to three of the videos we think it’d be a shame for you to miss.  Watch them below now!

Video Clip: IPv4 Exhaustion at ARIN

President and CEO of ARIN, John Curran, discusses the immediate problem of IPv4 depletion, including the latest global trends and statistics from the ARIN region.  He shows how the dwindling supply of IPv4 will limit the Internet’s growth and articulates the importance of implementing IPv6.

Video Clip: Address Policy Workshop

ARIN’s senior policy analyst, Einar Bohlin, and Advisory Council member, Owen Delong, speak about IPv4 and IPv6 policies at ARIN.  They explain how your addressing needs can be met through the ARIN policy development process and how to obtain IPv4 addresses directly from ARIN while they are still available.  They also cover address transfer policies and most importantly, IPv6 policies, which allow for a liberal allocation of addresses for IPv6 deployment.

Video Clip: Evaluation of the Current Transfer Market

Lastly we’d like to share with you this lively panel of industry experts discussing the IPv4 address (and ASN) transfer market while answering the most pressing questions about Internet number resource transfers.  This panel features John Curran, ARIN’s President and CEO, Lee Howard from Time Warner Cable, Charles Lee from Addrex,
 Louis Sterchi from Kalorama,
 Dr. Patrick Ryan from Google, and 
Allan MacGillivray from the Canadian Internet Registration Authority.

We hope you enjoyed these selected videos from the event hosted by ISOC.  If you’d like to continue watching video clips from the rest of the event, refer to the INET Denver playlist with all videos from the day’s presentations.

We can’t believe ARIN 31 has already come and gone. Thanks to all of you who joined us for another successful Public Policy and Members Meeting! This is your final daily recap from here in Bridgetown, Barbados.

Day 3 Daily Recap

Today, members heard the most recent news from each ARIN department.  These updates included detailed information from Financial Services, Human Resources and Administration, Registration Services, Communications and Member Services, and Engineering.  The ARIN Advisory Council and ARIN Board of Trustees provided updates as well, including a report from the Board Treasurer on ARIN finances.  Our meeting then concluded with an open microphone session with final questions and comments from the community.

The full meeting report will be published by 3 May 2013 on this ARIN 31 Meeting Presentations page.  In the meanwhile you can view or download all presentation slides from each day of the meeting already posted online at the following pages:

Day 1 – ARIN 31 Public Policy Meeting Presentations

Day 2 – ARIN 31 Public Policy Meeting Presentations

Day 3 – ARIN 31 Members Meeting Presentations

Plus, if you’d like to refer to any of the handouts prepared for ARIN 31, they are posted online on this meeting materials page.

Hopefully your ARIN 31 experience was a positive one. Whether you participated in the meeting onsite or at large, please complete a quick survey to give your honest feedback on the meeting to help us improve future ARIN meetings.  Each respondent will be entered into a raffle to win a Google Nexus 10!  (The winner will be chosen at random and notified via email.)

Save the Date

It might be early, but now that ARIN 31 has concluded, make sure to save the date for ARIN 32.  It has been announced that our second Public Policy and Members Meeting of 2013 will be held in Phoenix, Arizona from 10-11 October 2013.

Day 2 of ARIN’s Public Policy Meeting in Bridgetown, Barbados is a wrap.  We had many interesting discussions, presentations, and networking opportunities so far, and there is still another day ahead so don’t forget to tune in tomorrow morning from 9:00 AM (AST) until noon for the final day of ARIN 31.

We post all of our meeting materials and presentations online in case you missed something or you want to revisit any session again.  Take a moment to read today’s daily recap below.

Day 2 Daily Recap

We kicked off Day 2 with another warm welcome, and then jumped into some information on ARIN’s Consultation and Suggestion Process, a NRO Number Council Report, and a brief glimpse of ICANN’s next meeting this July.  We got updates on NRO activities, delegated RPKI and the ARIN Command Line Interface (CLI).  We also heard more about ARIN’s new fee schedule which will go in effect this summer.

In the afternoon, we had guest presentations on the Internet Protocol Best Current Operation Practices efforts and the Internet Society’s Deploy360 Programme.  We also heard from a panel on Internet governance as it relates to the stakeholders in the ARIN region, including those in the Caribbean.

Draft policy discussions today featured draft policies ARIN-2013-2: 3GPP Network IP Resource Policy and ARIN-2013-3: Tiny IPv6 Allocations for ISPs.  Finally, the Public Policy portion of ARIN 31 concluded with an open policy hour and open microphone session.

Whether you participated in person or remotely, we hope you will take a moment to fill out a quick survey about the meeting either today or tomorrow. Your feedback is important to help us improve all aspects of future ARIN meetings.

Tomorrow we’ll be back again in the morning for the Members Meeting portion of ARIN 31. These sessions are open to everyone and will include important updates about the inner workings of ARIN as an organization.  If you don’t happen to be with us in here here with us in Barbados, please join us remotely via one of these convenient remote participation options, including live webcast, audio, and text transcripts.

ARIN’s first Public Policy and Members Meeting of 2013 is in full swing. If you didn’t catch Day 1, that’s ok we’ll give you a quick run through of what we covered today. ARIN meetings are structured to give both onsite attendees and remote attendees the same opportunity to get fully involved in the public policy process.  Tomorrow, Tuesday, 23 April meeting discussions begin at 9:00 AM (AST), and you can still register and join us online tomorrow!

Day 1 Daily Recap

First thing in the morning, we hosted a First Timers’ Breakfast so people who have never come to an ARIN meeting could meet ARIN staff and leadership and get ramped up to participate.  The first timers’ handout given out at this breakfast is available online (pdf) which includes commonly used acronyms and details on how to stay active in ARIN.

Then we opened the meeting with a warm welcome to all our participants and some relevant announcements, followed by the ARIN Advisory Council on-docket proposals, Regional policy development, and Internet number resource status reports, as well as an update on IPv6 IAB/IETF activities.

We heard the latest news from  IANA and in each of the other four RIRs, including AFRINIC, APNIC, LACNIC, and the RIPE NCC.

The ARIN community also discussed two draft policies: ARIN-2012-2: IPv6 Subsequent Allocations Utilization Requirement and ARIN-2013-1: Section 8.4 Transfer Enhancement.

Shortly after a report on recent policy implementation and experience, we had time to squeeze in an extra agenda item—an update on resource transfers. We rounded out the day with an open microphone session.

Thanks to all of you who took part today. We’ll see you again tomorrow here or online for the live webcast, audio, and text transcripts. Be sure to review the full agenda to help determine exactly when you ought to tune in!

Recently, ARIN President and CEO John Curran sat down with Benjamin Rockwell from Computer Talk Radio to provide a quick update on IPv4 depletion, explain the implications of mobility on IPv6 adoption, and discuss what is at stake for all Internet stakeholders.

You can listen to John’s segment below!

Remember, networks should be dual-stacked for the foreseeable future to ensure all services are fully reachable by both IPv4 and IPv6. More information about the IPv6 transition can be found in our IPv6 Information Center.

Let us know how you are doing with your IPv6 transition in the comments section below.

In just a couple weeks, we’re headed to Bridgetown, Barbados for our next ARIN Public Policy meeting. But for those of you who won’t be joining us in person, there are several opportunities for you to participate remotely.

Comment, vote and ask questions

We consider in-person and remote participants to be equal contributors to the Policy Development Process, so we try to make it easy for you to follow along and take part in discussions no matter where you happen to be.

To participate from your office or home computer, you just need to register as a Remote Participant here (it’s free!) Just make sure you have a Jabber client installed on your computer and a Jabber Identifier (JID) when you register so we can set up your access to the ARIN 31 chat rooms.

During the live discussions you can submit comments during normal Q&A periods and “raise your hand” to be counted during polling. We’ll be discussing several draft policy proposals, including:

• ARIN-2012-2: IPv6 Subsequent Allocations Utilization Requirement
• ARIN-2013-1: Section 8.4 Inter-RIR Transfers of ASNs
• ARIN-2013-2: 3GPP Network IP Resource Policy
• ARIN-2013-3: Tiny IPv6 Allocations for ISPs

This is also your chance to hear the latest about happenings at ARIN, in Internet Governance, and reports from ICANN, IETF, and the other RIRs.  Check out the draft agenda for a complete listing of all the scheduled presentations.

The added bonus? We’ll send verified remote participants an ARIN travel mug as a thank you for participating!

Follow the conversation

If you cannot register for ARIN 31 remote participation for any reason, you may still view the webcast or live transcript on the ARIN website during general session hours. The live transcript will record all presentations and discussions from the meeting floor.

So even if you can’t make it out to Barbados, we hope you will participate remotely, and take this opportunity to be involved with the Internet number resource policy development process along with your peers and colleagues. We are looking forward to some invigorating discussions!

Plus find us on Facebook and Twitter

As a remote participant of any type, you’re also welcome to join our ARIN 31 Facebook event page to connect with others who will be participating in the meeting activities and to follow the #ARIN31 hashtag on Twitter to make sure you won’t miss a beat.

Will you be participating in ARIN 31 remotely?

This year we’re seeing a lot of activity surrounding the adoption of IPv6 on mobile networks. Companies like Verizon Wireless and T-Mobile USA are already pushing forward with their IPv6 mobile deployments, and many popular smartphones and tablets are IPv6 enabled, like the iPhone 5, iPads 3, 4 and Mini, Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2 and Nokia Windows 8 phones to name a few.

Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs) are making a lot of progress, and to encourage continued IPv6 adoption, ARIN President and CEO John Curran gave a keynote presentation at WISPAmerica on 3 April at the Northern Kentucky Convention Center in Covington, Kentucky. He explained the urgent need for IPv6 and even mentioned how transitioning to IPv6 can be a competitive business advantage, because there will come a day when customers will change ISPs if they are not able to reach the full Internet.  Consumers will want a provider that offers access the full IPv4 and IPv6 Internet.  John’s presentation slides are posted on our WISPAmerica calendar event for you to view.

ARIN also had a booth in the exhibit hall where we had great discussions with many wireless Internet service providers who had lots of questions for us.  The two most frequent were:

How do I get a direct IPv4 allocation from ARIN so I don’t have to rely on an upstream service provider for my IP addressing needs?

The first thing to do is review the current Internet number resource policy requirements to qualify for address space with a standard or multi-homed network.  We maintain a Quick Guide to help you do just that!

How can I get IPv6 from ARIN?

If you already have IPv4 from ARIN (or even if you don’t), it is easy to get an IPv6 allocation thanks to community developed policies which encourage IPv6 adoption.

Others had questions about ongoing discussing they’ve been following along with in our Public Policy Mailing List and about the current status of IPv4 depletion.  Many told us they believe that IPv6 migration is important for WISPs in both rural and urban areas, and they are working toward planning their deployment.

As a follow-up to WISPAmerica, we thought it would be a good idea to pull together list of resources to help the wireless community learn about best practices for their IPv6 migration and to know where to obtain additional information for their transition.

Here are a few options our members may find to be helpful:

• Cisco IPv6 Knowledge Base Portal
• Hurricane Electric’s IPv6 Portal
• ARIN IPv6 Wiki, especially our section on Broadband CPE
• IPv6 Google+ Community

Also, here are some key publications we follow to keep up with the latest IPv6 news in the wireless community.

• Multichannel News
• SearchTelecom
• LightReading
• FierceWireless
• Broadband Technology Report
• Wireless Week

Can you think of any more resources or publications to add to the list?
 

We’re only a few months into the year and boy have we been busy! From CES to NANOG 57, 2013 has certainly been keeping us on our toes. And we have no plans to slow down the pace!

Here’s a quick look at where you’ll find ARIN over the next several months. We even have the scoop on where our next three soon-to-be announced ARIN on the Road events will be headed—maybe to a city near you?

Here’s where you’ll find ARIN:

WISPAmerica

Covington, Kentucky, 1-4 April

ARIN will be talking to wireless Internet service providers at their gathering in the Midwest designed to promote the development, advancement and unification of wireless Internet service provider industry. Not only is ARIN exhibiting at the show, but also our CEO will also give an important keynote about IPv6 over lunch on Wednesday the 4^th.

ICANN 46

Beijing, China, 7-11 April

ICANN’s next meeting lands in China to talk about Internet policy and the need for continued stable and secure Internet operations.

INET Denver

Denver, Colorado, 17 April

With the goal of connecting with regional Internet communities, INET Denver will host this one-day event. CEO, John Curran, will give a keynote talk on ARIN’s IPv4 exhaustion. Then you’ll find him on a panel later in the day evaluating the current transfer market.  ARIN Senior Policy Analyst, Einar Bohlin, will also participate in an afternoon panel created to be an Address Policy Workshop.

North American IPv6 Summit 2013

Denver, Colorado, 17-19 April

Stop by the ARIN booth (we’ve got booth #16) at this annual all-about-IPv6 summit.  Hear CEO, John Curran, give a keynote talk on Leadership (or lack thereof) in IPv6 Adoption on Thursday afternoon. 

ARIN 31

Bridgetown, Barbados, 21-24 April

It’s hard to believe we’ve had over thirty ARIN Public Policy and Members Meetings. Similar to those before it, this ARIN meeting will provide an opportunity for the entire ARIN community to engage in policy discussions and network with colleagues. Everyone is able to get involved in ARIN 31 including onsite attendees and registered remote participants.

CaribNOG 5

Bridgetown, Barbados, 24-26 April

Stick around in Barbados after ARIN 31 for the Caribbean Network Operators Group’s fifth regional meeting featuring hands-on technical training sessions for ICT technicians and engineers. Registration is still open.

LACNIC 19

Medellín, Colombia, 5-10 May

The next LACNIC meeting will focus on technology and governance for an open and secure Internet. We’re looking forward to lively discussions and thoughtful networking in Colombia.

Interop Las Vegas

Las Vegas, Nevada, 6-10 May

The ARIN team will be exhibiting at Interop once again. So if you’re hanging around the show floor, feel free to drop bye and say hello at Booth #1168. We’ll be there talking about how businesses can plan ahead to make sure customers receive the best possible Internet-enabled services throughout the IPv6 transitioning process.

RIPE 66

Dublin, Ireland, 13-17 May

Similar to our ARIN Meetings, RIPE 66 will bring together the European and Middle Eastern Internet community in Dublin to discuss address policy and talk IPv6 with other leading industry professionals.

ARIN on the Road Overland Park (Kansas City)

Overland Park, Kansas, 21 May

Save the date for this ARIN on the Road event.  Even though we don’t have the all details for you yet, you can bet you’ll want to attend.

ARIN on the Road Birmingham

Birmingham, Alabama, 23 May

Save the date for this ARIN on the Road event too.  More information will be posted on our website soon.

NANOG 58

New Orleans, Louisiana, 3-5 June

Alongside our peers and community members, ARIN is heading to Louisiana to continue the discussions that began at NANOG57 earlier in the year. ARIN will hold its second Public Policy Consultation during this meeting.

ARIN on the Road Québec City

Québec City, Québec 13 June

Save the date for this event too.  We’ll have more information about this ARIN on the Road in Canada soon.

HostingCon 2013
Austin, Texas, 14-16 June

Even though the agenda isn’t published yet, we have it on good authority that ARIN CEO will be moderating a panel on why IPv6 is important for all hosting and cloud service providers.

AFRINIC 18

Lusaka, Zambia, 9-21 June

AFRNIC’s 18^th regional will spotlight as part of the Africa Internet Summit (AIS) this June with the overarching theme of Connection Matters: Making the Internet work for African development.

We hope to see you around.  Which events on our list will you be attending?

And please contact us at info@arin.net if you know of other events where ARIN participation would be useful!

ARIN 31 will give you the chance to network with colleagues in the Caribbean sector of the ARIN region while providing a unique opportunity to discuss and influence the future of the Internet.  The policies discussed at ARIN Public Policy Meetings directly impact how Internet number resources are managed in the ARIN region and your input in this process is important.  It’s not too late to register for our next meeting 21 – 24 April in Bridgetown, Barbados, but today is your last day to take advantage of the special room rate at the Hilton Barbados Hotel for ARIN 31 attendees.

At ARIN 31 we have big plans to discuss important topics. Agenda highlights include items like sessions on legacy address space and IPv4 transfers, delegated RPKI, best common operating practices for network operators, the NRO IPv6 Coordination Group, ARIN’s new fee schedule, and Internet governance in the upcoming year.

Plus we have the highlight of our meeting: policy discussions.  The full list of the draft proposals that we’ll cover during ARIN 31 can be found here.

If this your first time at an ARIN Public Policy Meeting, you’ll want to be at our first timers’ breakfast at the Grille Restaurant to meet with other newcomers and get an idea of what ARIN 31 has in store for you. Make sure to check out this primer first too.

If you can’t attend in-person, there are also several ways to participate remotely including; webcasts, live transcripts, discussion and polling chat rooms. We also make all our materials available to download to help you follow along.

Need another reason to attend and make the most of your experience? The Caribbean Network Operators Forum (CaribNOG) is holding a meeting directly after ARIN in the same hotel, and it’s open to everyone.

 
ARIN 31 is shaping up to be a very special event, so what we want to know is.  Will we see you there?

Is your IT staff ready to implement IPv6 on your network? If your organization is like most, the next few years will include transitioning to support IPv4 AND IPv6 accessible networks and services. One of the first steps is making sure your staff is prepared with the knowledge and tools for this challenging task.

How much does your team know about IPv6 addressing and configuration? How about routing protocols, tunneling and multicast services? And let’s not forget IPv6 security. No doubt about it, there is a lot your IT staff needs to understand before they can deploy IPv6.

So where should you start?  You can seek out IPv6-knowledgeable peers from your local IPv6 Forum group. There are also several regional chapters of the North American IPv6 Task Force that offer training events, like IPv6 Canada, the California IPv6 Task Force and the Texas IPv6 Task Force just to name a few.

Be on the look out for industry events boasting tutorials, panels and other educational presentations. For example, the ARIN team will be heading to the North American IPv6 Summit in April, where our CEO, John Curran, will give a presentation on leadership in IPv6 adoption. This two-day educational event that will arm attendees with the knowledge they can share with their IT teams about deployment.

In addition to events and working groups, there are lots of educational resources online. Here are a few of the free resources we recommend you check out:

TeamARIN IPv6 Wiki – list of training resources

Deploy 360 IPv6 Training

NANOG Meeting Archives

AFRINIC IPv6 Resource Center

APNIC IPv6 Program

ARIN IPv6 Info Center

Lacnic IPv6 Portal

RIPE NCC IPv6 Act Now & training courseware

We’ve only listed a small handful here, but there are many more resources out there, both free and at varying costs to meet any budget.  Have you used any other resources to help train your IT staff? Share what has worked for you in the comments section below.
 

It is decision time – attend ARIN 31 or not?  While we could extoll the virtues of the meeting locale, the truth is ARIN 31 would be worth your time no matter where it was held.

There are good reasons that the management and growth of the Internet became the central focus of important political discussions at events like WCIT last year.

The Regional Registry system and its open, transparent, community-driven model is a rare species.  Meetings like ARIN 31 allow community members to stay up to date on important issues while they shape the future by taking part in the Public Policy Development process.

Here are just a few of the important agenda highlights:

• Registration Services Director, Leslie Nobile, will give and update on Legacy Address Space and IPv4 Transfers
• President and CEO, John Curran, will discuss the new Fee Schedule
• Chief Engineer, Andy Newton, will introduce the community to the recently released Delegated RPKI and the ARINCLI beta, a command line method of utilizing Whois-RWS and Reg-RWS
• Aaron Hughes, President and Chief Technology Officer of 6Connect, will provide a status update on network Best Common Operating Practices
• Executive Director of Government Affairs and Public Policy, Cathy Handley, will lead a discussion on Internet Governance in 2013

We also will be continuing the discussion on several draft policy proposals, including:

• ARIN-2012-2: IPv6 Subsequent Allocations Utilization Requirement – which will make it easier to get additional IPv6 space
• ARIN-2013-1: Section 8.4 Transfer Enhancement – which will allow inter-RIR transfers of ASNs

Preview the discussions of these two draft policies on from our most recent Public Policy Consultation, and watch this short video clip to get a sense for what actual policy discussions are like. The sneak peak you will see is of draft policy ARIN-2013-1, which will also be discussed at ARIN 31.

Register today and take advantage of the special $199 USD single/double occupancy room rate until 20 March (subject to applicable taxes/fees/charges). Space is limited, so reserve your room early! You’ll also want to read more about important hotel and travel details.

ARIN 31 is a great opportunity to get the latest on a wide range of topics AND contribute to the community-driven policy development process in just a few short days.  Come be an Internet community leader – every voice counts!

Join us 21-24 April at the Hilton Barbados Hotel in Bridgetown, Barbados for this important Internet community event. Register for free today!

Imagine you’re taking a trip by plane. You start off in Los Angeles, and want to get to Germany, and the ticket agents in Los Angeles tell you that the quickest way there is via Washington, DC and London. You take their advice and in three relatively painless flights, you arrive in Germany, safe and sound. The ticket agents heard where you want to go and selected the best possible route for you to take based upon what they knew about air traffic, layover times, and geographic locations between themselves and Germany.

This is generally how routing works in today’s Internet world. Data packets (passengers) are sent to their destinations along a route selected by each router (airport) along the way. Between your home computer and the server where your email account is stored, there may be a large number of short trips for your data to take. It is up to the routers, beginning with the one in your own home, to determine where to send your packets next, in order to minimize the time it takes to get to your email server. Each router makes programmatic decisions based on information from neighboring routers. But how does a router know which other router is really the best place to send your data?

Currently, Internet routing is based largely upon trust; each router trusts that the next router is safe, legitimate, and reliable. While this trust model still works, the Internet has become increasingly vulnerable to attack. Anyone with enough motivation could insert themselves in the path of data and cause your data to be redirected, just like a makeshift air traffic controller could send your plane to the wrong destination. So what can be done to make sure routing is legitimate and tracked so that your data can be safely transported to the correct location?

Enter Resource Public Key Infrastructure (RPKI)! That mouthful of an acronym is the first key step toward secure global routing.  Let’s break up the term to better understand it:

• Resource: Internet Protocol (IP) addresses: the numbers we use to identify locations on the Internet
• Public Key: Part of a public/private key pair, used in cryptographic verification
• Infrastructure: The system in which these resources and keys operate

In a general sense, RPKI is used to certify beyond any doubt that a particular IP address or ASN was obtained legitimately by the organization that requested it. ARIN customers may opt into RPKI by making a cryptographic key pair, and giving the public key of that key pair to ARIN. ARIN then generates a resource certificate and allows them to request Route Origin Authorizations (ROAs): verifiable statements saying which Autonomous Systems may originate their IP address(es).

Let’s get back to our fantasy trip to Germany. The ticket agents in Los Angeles know that they can send you to Germany via the Washington, DC airport because of the information they have available to them. They have assurance that not only does that airport exist and is accepting flights, but it is also certified by the Federal Aviation Administration, screens passengers and airline staff based on Transportation Security Administration regulations, and it has a verifiable history of maintaining this standard of operation. In RPKI, ARIN is certifying that the router’s IP addresses are legitimately registered to the network operator and that the route originated in the right spot. This provides much more trustworthy data for routers to use, and gives your data a much better chance of always getting where it needs to go.

Visit ARIN’s RPKI section for participation details, frequently asked questions, troubleshooting and more.