The global IPv6 market was valued at US$1,127.451 million in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 32.40% over the forecast period to reach a total market size of US$6,074.636 million in 2025. IPv6 is the next generation of the Internet Protocol, which has the capability to identify devices connected across the network in order to allow them to be located. Irrespective of the type, every device, which is connected to the internet, has its own IP address through which it is identified and communication over the internet works. The earlier version, IPv4, which has been in use from a very long time, leverages a 32-bit addressing scheme which has been successfully supporting 4.3 billion devices connected and communicating over the internet. But, this no longer seems enough as continuously increasing penetration of the internet across all key regions, and robust sales of personal computers and mobile devices have been increasing the demand for more addresses. Rapid growth of Internet of Things (IoT) has been further increasing the need to adopt approaches which can aid in dealing with IP address crunch. Since this situation had been foreseen by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) around two decades back, it, in 1998, market the creation of IPv6. This latest version of Internet Protocol uses a 128-bit addressing scheme, as opposed to the 32-bit addressing scheme used by IPv4, and has the capability to support nearly 3.403E+38 (around 340 trillion trillion) devices. Not just this, this next generation internet protocol has the capability to increase the packet handling efficiency, enhance performance and significantly improve security. Internet Service Providers (ISPs) can easily scale down their routing tables’ size while making them more hierarchical. However, the adoption of IPv6 has been restricted to some extent owing to Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT allows an enterprise machine, with a private IP address, to communicate with machines with public IP address located outside their private network by converting the private IP address of such machines to public IP address. Without NAT, enterprises, which have thousands of devices or systems connected to the internet, would witness need for a huge number of public IPv4 addresses if they wish to communicate with machines in outside world. Since public IPv4 addresses are limited, NAT machine acts as a link between thousands of private address-computers or machines to machines on the public network. When a privately addressed machine attempts to communicate with a machine on the public network, packets first reach NAT machine, where the source and destination address of the packet is stored, and then the NAT machine converts the packet’s source address to the NAT device’s public-facing address. The packet is then sent to its destination. NAT has been delaying the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, thus affecting this market growth to some extent. Yet, the market growth is robust, which is evident from the compound annual growth rate of 32.40% which is expected till the end of our projected period.
One of the major drivers for this market is rapid growth in the number of devices connected to the internet across the globe. According to a data from Cisco, the total number of networked devices in the world is expected to grow from 17.1 billion in 2016 to 27.1 billion in 2021. The company expected that the number of networked devices globally to increase to 26.3 billion by the end of this year. Much of this increase is coming from rapid growth of Internet of Things across the globe. Internet of Things (IoT) is known to have the capability to fundamentally change our way of interacting with our surroundings. Monitoring and managing of physical objects electronically, a capability which is offered by the Internet of Things, allows users to incorporate data-driven decision making into almost every aspect of life. Optimization of systems’ and processes’ performance, time saving for businesses and people, and improvement in the quality of life are just some of the benefits this novel approach offers. Users can expect to streamline everything from monitoring of machines across facilities to tracking of ships at sea, as sensors continue to aid end users to churn out a lot more out of physical assets. Internet of Things can be instrumental in enhancing the efficiency and performance of machines, increasing their lifespan, and aiding users to unlock ways in which these machines can be redesigned in order to push their capabilities. In healthcare landscape, solutions like smart wearables and portable monitors, which leverage the power of Internet of Things, are known to significantly improve health outcomes, especially in areas which involve diagnosis and treatment of chronic diseases such as diabetes, insomnia, and others. In consumer applications segment, solutions such as smart HVAC systems, smart home appliances, and IoT-driven entertainment and security systems among others continue to give end users a glimpse into the IoT-driven future. In industrial environment, manufacturing companies, and oil and gas companies among companies operating in many other sectors have already started witnessing the initial payoff from smart IoT-based solutions across their operations. As this trend continues to strengthen its traction, suppliers of IoT technologies and solutions can be seen pumping more investments into research and development, and into creating strategies which can aid them and their customers in designing, developing, and operating complex systems while they work towards filling the existing gap between their ability to gather data from their physical environment and their ability to churn out actionable insights from it in less time. In automotive landscape, automakers, in order to boost their revenue growth, and to gain competitive edge over their rivals, have been pushing sensors and IoT solutions deeper into their vehicles. The industry is already witnessing a slow growth overall, and disruptions are required to boost the industry growth. With incorporation of smart sensors into vehicles, automakers seek to offer more value to the customers for the price they pay. Rapid growth of V2X, which means that vehicles will be able to communicate seamlessly with nearly everyone and everything, means that the number of devices connected to the internet is expected to surge dramatically over the next few years. This is driving with it the demand for IPv6, thus increasing the flow of investments into this market across the globe.
Geographically, the global IPv6 market has been segmented into North America, South America, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia Pacific. To give a clearer view, these regional markets have been further segmented into countries which account for a significant share in this market. North America and Europe, which are known to be the early adopters of new technologies, account for a significant share in this market. Presence of a good number of market players, coupled with the presence of state-of-the-art infrastructure across these regions, is expected to contribute to the market growth across them. The Asia Pacific IPv6 market, however, is expected to show a rapid growth over the projected period. With countries like China and South Korea, which have been some of the biggest producers of ICT equipment in the world, this regional market is expected to witness an impressive growth over our projected period. Japan and India have also been key markets for IPv6. Since all these countries have been holding a key position in the global ICT landscape, investments into IPv6 across these countries are expected to remain good. Other regions like South America, and Middle East and Africa also account for a decent share in this market. However, market growth across them is expected to show a growth slower than that in other three regions. We expect the global IPv6 market to witness some disruptive changes due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease across all these regions. The sudden increase in the spread of the virus across all these regions pushed governments to impose nationwide lockdowns in order to curb the disease spread. In the best interest of their employees, many companies implemented work from home policy. These factors surged the demand for many mobile computing devices, and other devices which use the internet to function. Since many ISPs are showing a continuous drift towards IPv6, investments into IPv6 showed some increase. Yet, uncertainties pertaining to the duration of the pandemic and cash flow amidst it affected the flow of investments into IPv6 to some extent. Overall investments into the market, however, are expected to remain good over this year. As the adverse effects of this pandemic are expected to fade away by next year, overall market growth till 2025 is expected to remain robust.
Competitive Insights
Prominent key market players in the global IPv6 market include Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., ZTE Corporation, Cisco, D-Link Corporation, Belkin International, Inc. and NETGEAR among others. These companies hold a noteworthy share in the market on account of their good brand image and product offerings. Major players in the portfolio management systemmarket have been covered along with their relative competitive position and strategies. The report also mentions recent deals and investments of different market players over the last two years.
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