IPv6 Info
Organization That Support IPv6
Wide
HISTORY
Over 20 years has passed since the transmission of data between two computers founded the principle of networking, and 16 years has passed since the founding of the WIDE Project. During this time, experiments carried out by numerous research cooperatives constituting a variety of organizations and researchers have given rise to significant achievements. Today, we are preparing ourselves for 10Gbps network environments. The role the WIDE Project has played in the construction of the Internet environments that you see at present is largely responsible for the evolution of the Internet into what it is today.
BACKGROUND
Internet technologies are making a transition from an era of deployment and high speed to one of qualitative evolution. The realization of a diverse range of environments enabling correspondence in a variety of forms and situations is rapidly becoming a reality. Meanwhile, a more reliable social infrastructure, one that has its roots deep in our every day lives, is in demand more than ever. Our goal is the construction of a "Dependable Internet", one that can be used by people from all walks of life in any situation with a sense of security. This enormous challenge cannot be taken on alone, but will require cooperation in research and development on a global scale. This is exactly where the significance of the information technology research network lies.
IPv6 - Hardware Vendor Support
Intro
There are many test IPv6 networks deployed across the world. For actual deployment, however, all the companies need to ensure that the vendors who support company s network have the requisite IPv6 enhancements. There are two categories of IPv6 enhancements. The first is the set that supports the packet forwarding (more commonly referred to as routing) process and the other set comprises enhancements that support the computing or host infrastructure. IPv6 enhancements of the first category include larger address formats (the ones that affect the routing table size and structure), better routing protocols such as Open Shortest First Protocol (OSPF) and Routing Information Protocol (RIP), and good support for optional extension headers (which streamline the packet forwarding process) such as the Routing Header. And, the second category of enhancements comprises enhancements to the Domain Name System (DNS), the Stateless Auto-configuration (plug and play) process, upgraded Security, and updates to the Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). Keeping these requisite enhancements in mind, let us now discuss what kind of support ten of the premier networking vendors are equipped to provide:
Apple Computer
The open source, UNIX-based OS X operating system from Apple Computer allows for advanced BSD networking and has a TCP/IP stack and advanced sockets. Versions 10.2 and later of this operating system provide good support for IPv6.
Cisco Systems
As this vendor has been actively involved in the development of IPv6, it provides very good support for IPv6. In fact, the vendor s support for IPv6 can be observed in all its products. Further, the documentation of IOS 12 has extensive details of the IPv6 features, such as Automatic and Configured tunneling, BGP extensions for IPv6, MTU Path Discovery, Neighbor Discovery, updated routing protocols, and Stateless Auto-configuration, supported in each platform.