NetMotion Wireless (News - Alert) strengthened the movement toward IPv6 technology this week, with an announcement that it has received its 11th U.S. patent related to its Mobile VPN (Virtual Private Network) software.
Patent number 7,644,171 -- “Mobile Networking System and Method Using IPv4 and IPv6” --covers but is not limited to technology for maintaining continuous, secure mobile connections over mixed IPv4 and IPv6 networks.
“Technology never stands still, just like the mobile workers we serve,” said Joe Savarese, SVP and general manager, NetMotion Wireless. “We continue to innovate and stay ahead of the curve, as demonstrated by our latest patent award. Our development team has anticipated the need for migration technologies once IPv6 becomes widespread.”
To date, NetMotion Wireless helps 450,000 mobile workers around the globe to solve some of the most common challenges in mobile deployments today, including software application crashes as users move in and out of wireless coverage areas, roaming between WiFi (News - Alert) and wide-area cellular networks, secure connectivity and device and policy management.
Meanwhile, other companies have recently hit the newswires with their own IPv6-related announcements.
As Christopher Davis (News - Alert), director of marketing for the NTT Communications Global IP Network, told TMCnet recently, NTT (News - Alert) America (and its parent company, NTT Communications) 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 (News - Alert) is doing the same thing -- they’re making more and more of their content available over IPv6 as well.”
Marisa Torrieri is a TMCnet Web editor, covering IP hardware and mobility, including IP phones, smartphones, fixed-mobile convergence and satellite technology. She also compiles and regularly contributes to TMCnet's gadgets and satellite e-Newsletters. To read more of Marisa's articles, please visit her columnist page.Edited by Marisa Torrieri