IPv6 News

Nixu DDI Software Appliance Platform Awarded Gold Medal for Its IPv6 Support on 21st December 2011Nixu Software has been awarded the IPv6 Ready Gold Certificate by the IPv6 Ready Forum for its DDI Software Appliance platform on 21st December 2011. The tests, which were carried out by an independent third party approved by the IPv6 Ready Forum, validated the interoperability between Nixu DDI Software Appliance platform and other networking products with IPv6 Ready Gold Certificate. Other manufacturers with IPv6 Ready Gold Certificate include Cisco Systems, Juniper Networks, RedHat, VMware, Hewlett-Packard and IBM.

The exhaustion of IPv4 address space in 2011 made IPv6 connectivity an unavoidable reality. While most organizations are yet to face an urgent need for introducing IPv6 support in their networks, they should nonetheless, plan ahead to ensure a smooth transition to a dual-stack environment. The increased complexity of the IPv6 address syntax and the vast size of the available address space mean that DDI services (DNS, DHCP, IPAM) play an even more pivotal role in managing these dual-stack networks.

Having introduced full dual-stack support already in 2004, Nixu Software has been a pioneer in the wide-scale adoption of IPv6 network connectivity. Juha Holkkola, the Managing Director of Nixu Software, said in this regard: "When we started out working with dual-stack environments, there was no strict standard, let alone any certification available. Now that IPv6 is going mainstream, we decided that it was a good time to have Nixu DDI platform's world-class IPv6 support formally acknowledged. Our products sailed through the testing phase in a matter of weeks, which is pretty impressive considering that for some of our competitors it has taken over a year, while for others it seems completely impossible."

To celebrate this achievement, Nixu Software has released a new version of howismydns.com, a free online test tool used to validate the configurations of public DNS servers. This latest version provides complete support for dual-stack networks, allowing fully transparent testing process for IPv4, IPv6 and dual-stack DNS deployments. In addition to IPv6 support, the new toolset also comes with a number of DNSSEC validation tests. To try out the latest IPv6 DNS and DNSSEC testing tools, please visit howismydns.com.

Silver Spring Networks has introduced Gen4, a new fourth-generation networking technology that is the latest advancement in smart grid networking, bringing greater flexibility and choice to utilities. Gen4 technology provides an integrated cellular option that delivers the industry’s first Micromesh technology, which give utilities more options to support multiple smart grid applications on an integrated, centrally managed IP network.
Complete info at SmartMeters.

The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is simple and SA's systems are ready, according to the Department of Communications (DOC).
Complete info at ITWeb.

Elliptic Technologies, a leading supplier of security semiconductor IP and software has announced the release of its IPsec Security Protocol Processor, SPP-230, to address the security needs of the 4G LTE mobile backhaul networks. This unique security engine accelerates IPsec packet processing to allow for multi Gbps performance by providing complete IPv6 ESP and AH packet transforms support.
Complete info at Design & Reuse and PRWeb.

What drives smart home or home-automation is smart semiconductor chips, mainly low power microcontroller/processors, wired or wireless networking interface with IPV6 support, and a smart power IC to power both from mains as well as energy harvesting. It can be termed as another big wave in electronics technology. The semiconductor chip vendors are already offering chips, reference designs and support for quick development. CES 2012 was very much witnessing that.
Complete info at EE Herald.

If you are using Internet or almost any computer network you will likely using IPv4 packets. IPv4 uses 32-bit source and destination address fields. We are actually running out of addresses but have not fear, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is here with IPv6.

The IPv6 packet (Fig. 1) doesn’t look much like its IPv4 (Fig. 2) cousin, except for the leading version field. The IPv6 address fields are 128-bits. The larger address space is one reason to migrate to IPv6 but there are many more differences that give IPv6 an advantage. For example, the header checksum field has been eliminated because transport reliability has gone up and its overhead was unnecessary.

The movement to IPv6 on a global scale is inevitable. It has been more of an issue of getting the infrastructure in place to make the move to cause the minimal number of problems. It is possible for IPv4 and IPv6 subnets to exchange traffic but there are issues that vary depending upon the network configuration and the type of network traffic.

More from Electronic Design…

Leading internet firms have set 6 June as the World IPv6 launch day.

IPv6 is the new net address system that replaces the current protocol IPv4, which is about to run out of spaces to allocate.

Web companies participating in the event have pledged to enable IPv6 on their main websites from that date.

The Internet Society, which made the announcement, said the day represented “a major milestone” in the deployment of the standard.

Facebook, Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo are the inaugural web firms involved.

More from BBC News…

For the moment I am going to assume there is more sensationalism than fact in the prediction the world is going to end this year. If the doomsayers turn out to be correct, following the advice in this piece won’t matter because Earth won’t be here.

And yet in one way, at least for the Internet, we should all be seen that R.E.M. song It’s the End of the World As We Know It. Several years ago the IT industry press gave considerable coverage to the fact we were running out of IPv4 Internet addresses. This is the year that happens, fulll stop.

And continuing with that famous song I quote “and I feel fine.”

It appears sensationalism sells. What does it really mean to us running out of Internet addresses? In reality, a whole lot of nothing.

That’s because it’s old news, and we have been planning for a long time. IPv6 is coming to town. I first wrote about it in one of my technical manuals over 10 years ago. In fact, I took that manual and some others and put them online with the help of my buddy Charles, eight years ago.

More from TRCB News…

Last year, a number of the worlds largest companies transferred IPv6 for 24 hours as a test run to determine whether it would work as predicted. June the 8th came and went without the Internet breaking, companies imploding, or the sky falling in – much to the relief of the pro-IPv6 camp.

Six months down the track, leading Internet firms have set 6 June as the World IPv6 launch day, with web companies participating in the event pledging to enable IPv6 on their main websites from said date.

The Internet Society, which made the announcement, said the day represented; “a major milestone” in the deployment of the standard with Facebook, Google, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo set to be the inaugural web firms involved.

More from Business Computing World…

Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Cisco and Yahoo have pledged to support the worldwide launch of IPv6 on 6 June 2012 for the permanent activation of the Internet standard in the companies’ products and services.

After a successful IPv6 day in June 8 of last year, the companies will now be joining the “World IPv6 Launch” day on June 6.

More from Social Barrel…