US Gvt ipv6 change, associated agencies

From: Jerry Dixon <jerry@jdixon.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:06:24 -0400
Sender: owner-nanog@merit.edu

Patrick/NANOG, see list of sites below to get information on IPV6
transitions. When you go to www.cio.gov you can type in ipv6 in the
search bar to get more information. When the USG migrates to IPv6
those agencies working with them will have to migrate or take one of
the approaches listed in previous postings to the nanog list. It'll
most likely be a slow transition but you'll really need to have that
conversation with the agency you're supporting or getting services
from to determine their timeline and what will be supported in the
future.

Now more specifically in your case that would be a good question for
HHS & SSA on what the roadmap is for pushing information and receiving
it for medicare or other e-gov programs.

I typed in the following into google and got all kinds of good info
related to your question: ipv6 medicare and site:.gov

http://www.cio.gov/

http://www.cio.gov/documents/IPv6_FAQs.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/egov/a-1-fea.html

http://csrc.nist.gov/groups/SMA/ispab/documents/minutes/2007-03/IPv6-NIST-ITL_ISPAB0307.pdf

Jerry
jerry@jdixon.com

>
>
> I'm looking for documentation on how the US Government IPv6 mandate
> affects associated agencies--e.g. healthcare providers, non-profits,
> or any company that depends on US Gvt. funding, record keeping, or
> financial reimbursement for services rendered (e.g. via Medicare).
>
> Over the past 5 years most US Gvt--Assoc. Agencies communications
> have moved from modem/BBS type systems to Internet based systems.
> With the mandate, IPv4 will still be available, but I would bet it
> will be less and less supported as time moves on. I would like to
> see what the Gvt. has planned....
>
> I've googled, read FAQs, and looked over the docs at whitehouse.gov
> without much luck. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Please DON'T PANIC!

People keep reporting that the US government is about to (or in the
process of) transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6. While this is true for some
definition of transition, it is NOT true for any definition I would
normally use.

From the IPv6 FAQ at cio.gov:

OMB Memorandum 05-22 requires the agency's network backbone
(aka. "network core") to be capable of transmitting both IPv4 and IPv6
traffic and supporting IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, by June 30, 2008.

Note: 1. This only applies to backbone networks, not services or end
systems. 2. This "transition" is NOT away form IPv4, but to a dual
stack supporting both IPv4 and IPv6.

This means that the DOE backbone nets (I work for one of them) must be
capable of accepting IPv6 traffic from our sites and passing it to other
sites or to other networks and most have IPv6 capable DNS.

The FAQ makes this clear with the statement:
The requirements for June 30, 2008 are for the network backbone (core)
only. Applications, peripherals, and other IT assets which are not
leveraged in the execution of the functions mentioned above are not
required for the June 30, 2008 deadline.

So nobody doing business with the US government is required to use or
even support IPv6 to access the government services. Only US Government
backbone provides are in any way impacted by OMB 05-22.

That said, it is likely that dual stack services will be required at
some future date by some future memorandum, but when and what is unknown
at this time. There is not indication of any plan to remove IPv4
capability from any network or service.