[mdlug] Ipv6- may be of interest

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Leading ISPs, websites commit to June 6 start for IPv6
AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Google among those on board for World IPv6
Launch
By Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World 
January 17, 2012 12:02 PM ET 
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Several of the world's largest ISPs and websites have committed to
permanently enabling IPv6 -- the next-generation Internet Protocol -- on
their products and services starting June 6, 2012.

AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable were among seven global ISPs that
have committed to this deadline, along with some of the world's most
popular websites including Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Bing.

BACKGROUND: IPv6 due for wide deployment in 2012

Q&A: Expert to IT Pros: Adopt IPv6 soon or be sorry later

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Several of the world's largest ISPs and websites have committed to
permanently enabling IPv6 -- the next-generation Internet Protocol -- on
their products and services starting June 6, 2012.

AT&T, Comcast and Time Warner Cable were among seven global ISPs that
have committed to this deadline, along with some of the world's most
popular websites including Facebook, Google, Yahoo and Microsoft Bing.

BACKGROUND: IPv6 due for wide deployment in 2012

Q&A: Expert to IT Pros: Adopt IPv6 soon or be sorry later


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All of these companies announced Tuesday that they are meeting this
deadline as participants of an event dubbed World IPv6 Launch, which is
being organized by the Internet Society.

"The fact that leading companies across several industries are making
significant commitments to participate in World IPv6 Day Launch is yet
another indication that IPv6 is no longer a lab experiment; it's here
and is an important next step in the Internet's evolution," said Leslie
Daigle, the Internet Society's chief information technology officer, in
a statement.

The ISPs participating in World IPv6 Launch have agreed to enable IPv6
for enough users so that at least 1% of their wireline residential
subscribers will use IPv6 to visit IPv6-enabled websites. Other
participating ISPs include Japan's KDDI, France's Free Telecom,
Australia's Internode and the Netherlands' XS4ALL.

IPv6 is a replacement for IPv4, the Internet's main communications
protocol which is running out of address space. IPv6 is not
backward-compatible with IPv4, so network and website operators must
upgrade their hardware and software to support it. IPv6 features an
expanded addressing scheme that can support billions of devices
connected directly to the Internet.

"We've seen unprecedented growth in network traffic over the past
several years, and IPv6 is critical to the continuation of that growth,"
said John Donovan, CTO of AT&T, in a statement released Tuesday. "We're
excited to participate in World IPv6 Launch by enabling IPv6 services
for new and existing residential customers in addition to the enterprise
customers we support with IPv6 today."

MORE: Comcast expands IPv6 services into four more states

The participating websites such as Facebook and Google have agreed to
permanently enable IPv6 on their main websites beginning June 6. Content
delivery networks Akamai and Limelight also have agreed to enable IPv6
throughout their infrastructures by this deadline to enable their
customers to support the new protocol in production mode.