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Gain More from Your Network with IPv6

May 2008  Print

In the not-too-distant future, your car, your refrigerator and even your co-workers may have their own IP addresses.

Contributing to this trend is the consumer drive towards anytime, anywhere access to technology, which has fuelled businesses’ hunger for wireless technologies and Unified Communications (UC).

With these technologies now verging on mainstream adoption, the number of devices that are part of business networks will continue to grow.

If your business is expanding its IP addresses or adding wireless technologies and UC to your communications mix, it is critical you have the skills to assess how IPv6 will exist within your  business.

The U.S. government has set June 2008 as the date by which all federal agencies' network backbones must be transitioned to IPv6.

For Australia, this means that every business that transacts with the US government will need to support IPv6. It is likely that the Australian government will soon follow suit and we will see a renewed push towards IPv6 by the end of the year.

 

A Guide to IPv6
The global Internet and most medium-to-large private networks run on the TCP/IP protocol stack. One half of that team works at the network layer is the Internet Protocol (IP).

The most-used version of IP is currently IPv4, which is based on the assignment to each network interface of a 32-bit address, usually denoted in “dotted quad” decimal format; for example: 192.168.1.1.

For IP addressing to work, every network device must have a unique address. When IPv4 was developed, the 32-bit address space provided more than enough unique addresses. However, today, the world is running out of available IP addresses.

IPv6 increases the address space from 32 to 128 bits, providing for a virtually unlimited (for all intents and purposes) number of networks and systems.

 

How to Ensure your Network Survives the Change
According to Neil Christie, Cisco Product Manager at DDLS, businesses need to be aware of the pending switch to IPv6 and how it will affect their network.

“Businesses need to future-proof their network,” says Christie. “If IPv6 is just around the corner, the smart money says look at how it is going to affect you.”

Businesses need to also be aware of their current switching and routing skills sets. With many businesses now delivering business critical applications via the web – such as Gmail and other on-demand applications – traffic across the network is increasing.

Having a network that is robust enough to handle IPv6 is only the second half of the equation; the first half and importantly adoption, is the skills required to leverage the technology.

This year DDLS has seen a radical increase in interest for its IPv6 fundamentals courses.

To find out more about how the next big step in networking can help your business, contact DDLS on 13 12 01.