Federal agencies will be required to have their network
backbones running on a new Internet protocol — IPv6 — by
June of 2008, the Office of Management and Budget’s
administrator for e-government and IT said in recent
testimony before the House Government Reform Committee
about a planned government-wide Internet upgrade.
Karen Evans said the new protocol — already being adopted
independently – would expand address space, improve
flexibility, functionality, information routing,
mobility, activation, configuration, network operation,
and would result in “a new communication paradigm.”
The guidance would have agencies study a Government
Accountability Office report – GAO-05-845T — covering
transition issues, as well as a Department of Commerce
report and another from the Department Homeland Security
covering security issues.
Agencies will have to assign an individual to lead and
coordinate agency planning to be responsible for
monitoring, enforcing and reporting on IPv6 implementation
within the agency, said Evans.
She said agencies would be required to develop an
inventory of IP capable devices and technologies and
report on them in the first quarter of fiscal 2006 — as
well as conduct an impact analysis to determine fiscal
and operational impacts and risks during the transition.
Finally, the policy would direct the CIO Council to
develop detailed IPv6 implementation guidance, according
to Evans.
