9 August 2011- Last year the Internet Assigned Number Authority (IANA) announced that it allocated the remaining last five /8s of the IPv4 address space to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) and announced that the free pool of available IPv4 is now fully depleted. Although the internet community have speculated about the continuity of the technology, the organization responsible was quick to respond and predict the occurrence. Thus it paves the way for the transition of IPv4 to IPv6. 

As we move towards mobile communication, greater demands for data are requested each and every day. The demand does not only create pressure to infrastructures but also creates strain to modality so as to how it is transported, and most of it through IP. 

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is a version of the Internet Protocol (IP) that is designed to succeed Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the long-anticipated IPv4 address exhaustion. Like IPv4, IPv6 is an Internet Layer protocol for packet-switched internetworking and provides end-to-end datagram transmission across multiple IP networks. 

While IPv4 allows 32 bits for an Internet Protocol address and can therefore support 4,294,967,296 addresses, for IPv6 it uses 128-bit addresses so the new address space supports 18,446,744,073,709,551,616 addresses. And this expansion allows for many more devices and users on the internet as well as extra flexibility in allocating addresses and efficiency for routing traffic. It also eliminates the primary need for network address translation (NAT), which gained widespread deployment as an effort to alleviate IPv4 address exhaustion.

Given the vast capabilities as well opportunities of the IPv6, numerous educational institutions are offering courses related to the technology. Online and classroom courses are available so that related practitioners would be more aware and knowledgeable when it comes to IPv6. The course varies based on the specialization and the end application of the technology. 

In Malaysia for example, the National Advanced IPv6 Centre (NAv6) along with University Sains Malaysia has committed to creating talents that specialize in IPv6. NAv6 is currently working closely with governments and organizations around the world to promote, train, consult and deploy the IPv6 technology. They are also assisting government institutions in formulating the national IPv6 roadmaps and frameworks, and they are currently active in making sure the migration from IPv4 to IPv6 is as seamless as possible. 

As part of the thrust to educate professionals in the field, courses and training have been designed and made available in relation to the technology. Course content is designed and delivered in the context of each and every client's specific environment and business need. NAv6 has partnered and is still growing its partnership with educational institutions in their thrust to educate engineers and specialize them when it comes to IPv6. The IPv6 training program aims to give in depth information on the transition of IPv4 to IPv6 and it will expose participants to the technical expertise needed in the deployment of IPv6 in an organizations network. 

Trainers, Network Engineers and Network Administrators with IPv4 background knowledge are invited to enroll in the IPv6 courses. The course covers subjects including network fundamentals that tackle basic networking concepts, including transport and routing protocols. The course includes discussion on computer networks and the internet, the deals with protocols as well as the network core, layers, packet switches and internet backbones. It also discusses transport layer as well as network layer and routing. However, there are different modules being offered depending on the specialization of each and every participant. Here are the some of the certified courses that are currently being made available to specialize in IPv6. 

Certified IPv6 Network Engineer Level 1

The course tackles primarily the planning and implementation of IPv6 in a multi vendor, commercial environment. After graduating from the course participants are expected to know how to implement new networking software and devices to IPv6. It also aims to teach engineers to implement auto configuration to manage IPv6 addresses as well as configure the different IPv6 migration tools such as tunneling in order to facilitate transition. 

The course will cover basic topic such as computers network and internet. It will discuss as well current solutions to IPv4 depletion, then it will lead you to the introduction of IPv6 and its basic protocols. It introduces participants to IPv6 addressing, after which you learn about IPv6 control message protocol, IPv6 neighbor discovery, transition and mechanism approach then IPv6 routing. 

Certified IPv6 Network Engineer Level 2

On the next level network engineers are being taught how to plan and manage the migration of network to IPv6 to be able to implement new networking software and devices to supports IPv6 and be able to install configure associated network service such as DNS and routing protocols. The course includes mobile IPv6, anddiscusses IP mobility and securing/managing IPv6 networks. 

Certified IPv6 Network Programmer

The module will discuss how to write and implement IPv6 capable application in a mixed network environment. On this course participants will learn and understand the benefits of IPv6 capable applications. It will also teach them how to perform IPv6 socket programming and porting, rewrite client and server application for it to be IPv6 ready, as well as parsing and mapping IPv6 addresses. It will discuss more about IPv6, its technical features including its application and transition. The outline includes IPv6 porting tools, basic socket interface extension, API modification and IPv6 based applications.

Crossroad

Although we are in the crossroad between IPv4 going to IPv6, it is nice to know that as early as now we are spending enough time and effort to know the next available technology which is IPv6. Because by further study in the field we would not only be able to migrate to IPv6 seamlessly but alsolearn more about the potential of IPv6. It is worth noting that it is nice to know whatdifferentiatesIPv4 and IPv6, includingproblems that we encountered with previous protocol. 

Thus, by learning from it we would minimize if not eliminate the risk of having mistakes on IPv6. The vast potential of the new technology is not reflected in its numbers. These courses would definitely equip professionals with the know how to harnessed its full capabilities, and as we move to a converged IP based community, courses like these will definitely be the backbone of every engineers and programmers to bring about the unexpected change in the way we communicate - especially in today's internet driven and mobile community.   

© T2 Arabia 2011