The Foreign Service Journal, October 2008

magazine ( www.govexec.com/fea tures/0508-01/0508-01s2.htm ). Currently, the federal government (like just about everyone else) uses IPv4, developed 25 years ago when software engineers could not have estimated the popularity of the Inter- net or explosion of electronic media. Today people around the world are not only plugged into the Internet in rapidly increasing numbers, they are wedded to cell phones, Ipods and other communication gadgets. Under IPv4, users send informa- tion across the Internet and via every one of those devices with a 32-bit number, which means that there are a maximum of about four billion differ- ent addresses. The limit is expected to be reached in several years. IPv6, by contrast, uses 128-bit sequences, thus exponentially increasing the number of possible addresses ( www.ipv6. org ), and offering the opportunity to achieve fully networked functionality among all electronic devices. The new protocol also allows a bet- ter, more systematic hierarchical allo- cation of addresses and efficient route aggregation ( http://en.wikipedia . org/wiki/IPv6 ). Other benefits are improved security, network-manage- ment enhancements and advanced application and services. For exam- ple, as Chief Information Officer in the Office of the Secretary of Defense Kris Stance explained to GovExec : “In Iraq, when we initially went in, it took weeks or sometimes months to get networks up and running. With IPv6, it would take hours, or at most days, to do the same task.” OMB issued its mandate so the U.S. government would be in a posi- tion to lead in the crucial transition. Asian and other countries that were allocated relatively few IPv4 addresses at the outset of the Internet Age already feel the shortage keenly, and their governments have been quick to adopt the new protocol, investing mil- lions of dollars in making the switch. For example, the Chinese used IPv6 when they created a new Internet structure to support the Olympic Games. Domestic critics claim that the address crunch is exaggerated, espe- cially for American agencies that were given large blocks of IPv4 space in the early 1990s. Because the address problem is not as severe in the U.S., many have been reluctant to make the move. The biggest incentive has been the OMB mandate, which requires federal agencies to acquire IPv6-capa- ble network gear and have their core networks IPv6-enabled — ready to be transitioned to the new protocol — by June 30. Most federal agencies have met that deadline, but it is the minimum goal. In the words of Pete Tseronis, a member of the IPv6 working group: “IPv6 is a marathon, and June 30 is mile marker 1.” There are significant hurdles in the transition, including security. In August, the General Services Administration became the first U.S. civilian agency to fully implement the new protocol. For federal IT man- agers, the next steps are reserving address space and meeting with other key IT people in their respective agencies to assure a successful changeover to IPv6. — Ariana Austin, Editorial Intern Doha Collapse: What Lies Ahead? On July 29, the World Trade Organization’s Doha Development Round — which opened in Novem- ber 2001 and was originally scheduled to conclude on Dec. 31, 2004 — broke down for the fourth, and per- haps final, time with the collapse of a 30-nation ministerial meeting in Geneva ( www.wto.org ) . WTO offi- cials and delegates blame differences between the U.S., on the one hand, and India and China, on the other, over a special safeguard mechanism O C T O B E R 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 11 C Y B E R N O T E S u