(Editor’s Note: Over the past few weeks, TMCnet has examined the next generation Internet Protocol standard, “IPv6” – the transition to it, its advantages over IPv4, why companies should care about it and what experts from one company, NTT America (News - Alert), have to say about the way IPv6 is being addressed in different nations around the world. What follows is Part 3 of our series)
TMCnet has taken a hard look at IPv6, a next generation Internet Protocol that will open up infinitely more IP addresses than the current protocol, IPv4.
We’ve talked about why businesses should care about that change, and we’ve talked to officials with one of the Tier 1 operators that’s helping lead the way toward a smooth, effective transition, NTT America.
As Christopher Davis (News - Alert), director of marketing for the NTT Communications Global IP Network, told us recently, NTT America (and its parent company, NTT Communications (News - Alert)) has been involved in the development and implementation of IPv6 since 1996, when it built one of the first IPv6 test networks, which was interconnected, or “peered” with other IPv6 networks.
“We have been very involved in technology development and adoption,” Davis said, adding that the company is an early member of the IPv6 Forum, which was founded in 1999 by the IETF Deployment Work Group to help drive IPv6 deployment worldwide. “It was around 2001 when we made IPv6 first commercially available – and by 2004 it was available globally everywhere on our network.”
So what does Davis see as being the next phase in the ongoing transition to IPv6?
“I think you’re going to see a lot more content providers making the transition,” he said. “Recently NetFlix made an announcement that their ‘Watch Instantly’ streaming library is now available over IPv6. It didn’t get a lot of play in the media – but that’s a really big step in the right direction. And Google is doing the same thing -- they’re making more and more of their content available over IPv6 as well.”
“But it’s a chicken and the egg conundrum,” Davis continued. “You’re not going to have users on an IPv6 network if there isn’t any content – and you’re not going to have any content providers on an IPv6 network if there aren’t any users. So you have to take these incremental steps – now there’s another block of broadband users on the IPv6 network – and then along come the content providers – then you have another block of broadband customers on IPv6 – and so on.” He added that a lot of the content providers and service providers are recognizing that “this isn’t just something that you turn on all at once – it can take a couple years for a large service provider network to make the full transition. Adding email and web server dual-stack capabilities can be completed much sooner.”
NTT America continues to be very involved in the IPv6 community: Company officials will be speaking during the IPv6 Forum track at the upcoming IEEE Globecom show this fall -- and the company is also going to sponsoring the IPv6 Task Force Conference in Texas in November. In addition they’re doing two events at the IPv6 Forum this fall.
In January, at the 2009 International CES, company officials discussed Hikari-TV, the first large scale, commercially successful IPTV (News - Alert) over IPv6 service, as part of the panel, “Planning for an IPv6 World in 2010.” The Hikari-TV service comprises 76 channels including high definition (HD) channels, more than 10,000 video on demand titles and over 13,000 titles in its karaoke service.
Also in January, for the fifth consecutive year, NTT America was invited to exhibit at the Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee (ICAC) 12th Annual Kickoff Technology Policy Exhibition where the company highlighted IPTV over IPv6. In March, at the IPv6 Implementors Conference held at Google’s Mountain View, Calif. headquarters, NTT America discussed IPv6 implementation experience. And in May, at the Future-Net 2009 Conference in Boston, NTT America joined executives from Global Crossing (News - Alert) and BT on an IPv6 Carrier Panel.
“We currently have more than 50 Gigs of customer capacity that is dual stacked,” Davis said, adding that this represents about 18 to 20 percent of NTT America’s customer base. “And that’s the way you have to handle the transition – you have to run both IPv4 and IPv6. Of course, there are things you have to do to accept the transition. But once you get connected to our network, that gives you the opportunity to get your Web server or your e-mail server on a dual stack connection – and at least get those two systems accessible from the IPv6 side of the Internet. Over time you can move other network assets over as you’ve completed your impact analysis – and as traffic picks up, you’re prepared to start accepting IPv6 traffic from whoever you are exchanging with.”
This concludes TMCnet’s 3-part series on NTT America and IPv6. Read Part 1 of the series here and Part 2 here.
Patrick Barnard is a senior Web editor for TMCnet, covering call and contact center technologies. He also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet e-Newsletters in the areas of robotics, IT, M2M, OCS and customer interaction solutions. To read more of Patrick's articles, please visit his columnist page.Edited by Marisa Torrieri