Cisco and Other Industry Leaders Accelerate IPv6 Development Efforts

📅 July 10, 2001 - Cisco Systems, Inc., a worldwide leader in Internet networking, and several industry partners are working in concert to accelerate the development of hardware, software and solutions that will benefit from the enhanced features of the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

IPv6 offers expanded IP addresses, integrated auto-configuration for plug-and-play capabilities, enhanced mobility, and end-to-end security. Cisco, along with partners IBM, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, Sun and Motorola, are implementing IPv6 in hardware, software and operating systems to enable business applications to run IPv6-enabled networks in support of growing adoption by their customers.
Currently, IPv6 appeals primarily to customers in the wireless, gaming and home networking industries, military and governmental bodies, as well as national research networks worldwide. Mobile, greenfield and regional Internet service providers are currently evaluating IPv6 products and platforms in preparation for commercial deployment.
"IPv6 is an emerging technology that will increase in significance as the demand for IP addresses grows,"
said Lawrence Orans, a senior analyst at Gartner, Inc. "We anticipate that this demand will be strongest in the Asia-Pacific region, which owns far fewer registered IP addresses than North America."
Gartner expects that by 2006, 50% of all carriers in this region will have IPv6 running in some portion of their networks.
Says David Chew, director of IBM Enterprise Transaction Systems: "By enabling IBM's operating systems, micro electronics, applications and middleware with IPv6 capabilities, customers should be able to lower
administrative expense, provide enhanced security and reduce complexity, especially in managing wireless networks."
Because of the rapid growth in wireless Internet, there is a demand for a much larger number of IP addresses to support the explosion in "smart" technologies, such as automobiles and appliances.
"IPv6 will provide additional benefits for these new applications, including built-in support for quality of service, improved security, and the elimination of the need for network address translation," says Al Zabarsky, corporate vice president and director of corporate strategy at Motorola, "all of which will eventually result in better applications and easier network management."