IPv6 support on Virgin media
Does anyone know whether (and if so when) Virgin plan to implement IPv6 on its network?
Forum Discussion
The slow ramp-up could be explained by a need to reboot the cable modem/router to get a v6 address. If VM forced reboots on the affected customers then you'd get the on/off steps in the graph, but if not then you'd see the slow increases/decreases.
As for set-top boxes, I was under the impression that they only had an IP from the management network, which is RFC1918. That means they won't need public IPs... but it is worth remembering that RFC1918 is only about 18 million addresses, which starts to look rather small when you need to assign management addresses for all cable modems and all (legacy) STBs, plus network infrastructure and also all company-internal networks, especially when Project Lightning means they also need to plan for significant growth. RFC1918 isn't a magical fix to everything.
(In principle you could run two separate instances of RFC1918, but the administrative overhead of that is very non-trivial and it's something you really want to avoid doing. Comcast in the US actually started using public v4 space for their management network to avoid doing that.)
@Dagger2 writes:
(In principle you could run two separate instances of RFC1918,...
Oh lordy. :(
Well I would certainly empathize with VM engineers if at some point they decide(d) that they've already suffered enough pain at the hands of IPv4 and say to management "We've had enough of this, get us out of yesterday's hell please." Even the beancounters would probably sympathize, because skilled manpower is extremely costly.
The contortions needed to keep IPv4's head above water remind me vaguely of writing applications with overlays to make them fit into the tiny memory address spaces of yesteryear. Nobody looks back on those days with fondness. We'll be looking back in extreme distaste at IPv4 too once the dust of transition has settled.