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IPv6 Has a Case of the Mondays

I just found out that Google publishes IPv6 traffic numbers for Google users, going back through 2008. It shows what you expect, traffic as a percentage has steadily increased, it’s consistent but not exponential. Right now Google averages about 14% IPv6 since January. But there’s a weird phenomenon that I can’t explain.

Because Google tracks this daily, the graph is pretty fine-grained. Since about 2012, the numbers show relatively big drop offs in IPv6 traffic as an overall percentage throughout the week. Oddly, this drop off exclusively occurs on the weekdays. With a few exceptions (for example the US election), traffic during the week is about 2-3% overall percentage points lower, about 25% of overall IPv6 traffic. It’s an IPv6 party on the weekend!

Maybe this has a lot to do with a lot of legacy business networking still using IPv4? Then over the weekend, with less traffic through these legacy systems, it ticks up? I think I would need to see this compared to overall traffic volume before I can say for use. Either way, it’s a little weird.

Thanks to Matthew Green for sharing this.

About the author

Rich Stroffolino

Rich has been a tech enthusiast since he first used the speech simulator on a Magnavox Odyssey². Current areas of interest include ZFS, the false hopes of memristors, and the oral history of Transmeta.

5 Comments

  • “It shows what you expect, traffic as a percentage has steadily increased, it’s consistent but not exponential.”

    Jan. 2011 – about .25%
    Jan. 2012 – about .5%
    Jan. 2013 – about 1%
    Jan. 2014 – about 2.5%
    Jan. 2015 – about 5%
    Jan. 2016 – about 8%
    Jan. 2017 – about 15%

    Actually, so far it appears to be about doubling every year. This seems to be exponential to me.

  • The weekday blues should be easy to explain. Every office I’ve worked at has IPv6 disabled; most residential ISPs have it turned on, as do many cellular carriers. If my experience is typical, it’s no surprise that fewer people are using IPv6 during business hours.

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