The first IP overhaul in 25 years promises quality, security and zillions of badly needed addresses. WorldCom and Sprint take IPv6 for a spin.
Driven by the looming exhaustion of IP addresses and the promise of new capabilities, Internet service providers and network gear makers are kicking the tires on the next-generation IP in a number of test implementations. The work to migrate products and services from IPv4 (IP Version 4) to the Internet Engineering Task Force's IPv6 should give corporate customers a host of new features, ranging from tighter security to better QOS (quality of service).
WorldCom is testing IPv6 within its own VBNS (very-high-performance Backbone Network Service). The company runs a nationwide native IPv6-over-asynchronous transfer mode section on the VBNS at speeds of 155M bps. Right now, the driving force toward IPv6 "is increased addressing space, especially as Internet-enabled devices become prevalent," said Greg Miller, director of advanced Internet technology at WorldCom, in Clinton, Miss.
Under the IPv4 specification for Internet traffic, which uses a 32-bit addressing scheme, "we're going to run out of IP addresses eventually," Miller said. The 128-bit addressing scheme of IPv6 is enough to dedicate many thousands of IP addresses for every square inch of the Earth's surface, IETF officials said.
WorldCom is also looking at IPv6 to provide higher levels of service performance, security and flexibility than are available with IPv4, which has been the standard on the Internet for more than 25 years.
Sprint and the '6bone' network
Sprint Corp., for its part, hopes to get an early jump on the move to IPv6 through experiments with the "6bone" network -- a network put in place by industry groups to run early versions of IPv6 -- said Rob Rockell, operations engineer at Sprint's Internet Services division, in Kansas City, Mo.
The company operates its portion of the 6bone network running IPv6 traffic exclusively as a "tunnel" within its Internet backbone. Sprint currently provides IPv6 connections to about 70 research, government, academic and corporate entities, Rockell said.
Sprint (NYSE: FON) is also looking to IPv6 as the vehicle for far higher levels of service security and performance, he said. For instance, IPv6 was engineered to include built-in support of QOS, DiffServ (Differentiated Services) and IPSec (IP Security). IPv4 includes none of those functions as a uniform part of the standard.
Despite the work being done with the specification, commercial availability of IPv6 software and services isn't expected until next year at the earliest, after networking companies such as Cisco Systems begin implementing the technology in core products.
Advanced Systems Consulting has been connected to the 6bone network, testing IPv6 to keep customers abreast of developments in IPv6 and determining the feasibility of its use by corporations, said Andrew Hazeltine, vice president and chief scientist at the Marlton, company.
Advanced Systems, a systems integrator and consulting company, is testing beta versions of operating systems that support IPv6, including Sun Microsystems's Solaris, Cisco's IOS, and Microsoft's Windows NT and Windows 2000, Hazeltine said. He expects to see corporate demand for IPv6 take shape as the standard becomes commercially supported within those operating systems.
