28

Look at the graph of IPv6 adoption rates maintained by Google here:

https://www.google.com/intl/en/ipv6/statistics.html

Zoom in to the September to December 2015 period.

The graph of IPv6 adoption rates is clearly periodic, with much higher rates at the weekend. Why is that?

Improve this question
2

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
32

tl;dr: Because Comcast.

Comcast has, by any measure, the largest IPv6 deployment in the world, with the greatest number of users. Commercial/business networks are lagging behind with regards to IPv6. People are not at work on the weekends and such we see higher IPv6 adoption then. I'm sure other residential ISPs contribute to this trend as well.

Say what you want about Comcast's business practices. No one can fault them for being a staunch IPv6 advocate from very early on. (of course they were forced into it due to IPv4 not having enough addresses for them to manage their own device pool)

Improve this answer
14
  • Makes sense, everyone turns on and connects their bazillion IoT devices to their home wifi.
    – Colyn1337
    Dec 29, 2015 at 14:19
  • The trend started a lot earlier though. Even back in the earliest days of those statistics (when 6to4 was twice as common as native IPv6), the trend was visible on both 6to4 and native IPv6.
    – kasperd
    Dec 29, 2015 at 14:51
  • @kasperd Perhaps another additive effect is that Youtube is available over v6 and people youtube more on weekends/holidays?
    – EEAA
    Dec 29, 2015 at 14:58
  • 2
    @EEAA every chart I find online shows higher usage during the week than on the weekend. See most of the results here google.com/…
    – cde
    Dec 30, 2015 at 5:43
  • 1
    Even better, this quora with links and graphs to Quantcast traffic tracking. Most damning, even Google Search has much less traffic during the weekend compared to the week (Desktop, not mobile) according to their live event and Amit Singhal quora.com/…
    – cde
    Dec 30, 2015 at 5:49
5

Some mobile networks have already switched a large portion of their customer base over to IPv6 (T-Mobile being one that comes to mind).

If we make the plausible assumption that people tend to spend more time away from their home computers on weekends, then it makes sense that IPv6 traffic would increase proportionally.

Improve this answer
4
  • 1
    I don't think this explains that much of it. Android devices are pretty much constantly in contact with Google, for instance, and so they would be counted every day of the week.
    – Michael Hampton
    Dec 30, 2015 at 3:00
  • @MichaelHampton - but they're also likely on wifi most of the time during the week, whereas you're far more likely to be away from wifi on the weekends
    – warren
    Jan 4, 2016 at 21:40
  • @warren I don't know about you, but many people are not on wifi while commuting to and from work!
    – Michael Hampton
    Jan 4, 2016 at 21:44
  • @MichaelHampton - and while they're commuting (if they're driving), they're not using their phones (and if they're on subways, they can't get reception anyway). And I'm going to bet while at work, they're on wifi (just like they'd be at home), both of which are substantially longer than the amount of time they're just on cell data
    – warren
    Jan 5, 2016 at 3:11

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .