A new Federal Acquisition Regulation final rule embeds IPv6 even deeper into federal agency acquisition practices.

The new rule, published Dec. 10, adds a new paragraph to FAR Part 7.105 to the effect that IPv6 must be addressed in written acquisition plans of both new contracts and orders made through indefinite delivery vehicles. In discussion about the final rule printed in the Federal Register, federal officials say that uncertainty about whether IP acquisitions should be "IPv6 compliant" or "IPv6 capable" is addressed by National Institute of Standards and Technology guidance and CIO Council IPv6 transition guidance (.doc).

The final rule also makes explicit in FAR Part 12.202 that market research conducted for commercial items must include IPv6, whenever acquiring information technology that uses Internet protocol.

The final rule also adds a paragraph to FAR Part 39 .101 also making explicit that acquisitions of IT utilizing Internet protocol must also make use of IPv6.

Agency utilization of IPv6 is bounded by the agency's enterprise architecture, the new rule states. The delimiting of IPv6 by agency EA, in fact is articulated in a new paragraph in FAR Part. 11.002, which all the other new paragraphs incorporate by reference. The new Part 11 section also makes it policy to reference the NIST guidance and corresponding declarations of conformance defined in the test program as the federal documents that control federal IPv6.  

For more:
- download the final rule (.pdf)

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