Application delivery vendor A10 Networks has moved to address the growing issue of IPv6 by releasing new migration tools aimed at carriers and ISPs.
Internet Protocol (IP) is the technology that enables data to be sent from one computer to another across the web. IPv4 is the most widely used version but it is rapidly running out of useable addresses. The IPv4 address pool is nearing exhaustion, and A10 predicts that it will be empty by 2012 at the latest.
The surge in the number of mobile devices used to connect to the Internet, web-enabled games consoles and other network-aware devices have contributed towards an increase in the demand for IP addresses.
IPv6 is the next generation Internet Protocol and so suppliers need to migrate from IPv4 to the newer version. However, Lee Chen, founder and CEO of A10, told CBR that the migration process could mean that IPv4 and IPv6 will have to co-exist for many years, possibly even decades.
“Internet-enabled devices such as smartphones and Xboxes means that demand for IP addresses is going up,” Chen said. “IPv4 will be exhausted by 2010 so addresses will have to co-exist between the two.”
To help ISPs and carriers with the migration process A10 has boosted its AX application delivery controller series with the announcement of the Large Scale NAT (LSN) and Dual-Stake Lite (DS-Lite).
A10 claims that LSN can share public IPv4 addresses among multiple customers as well as standardising NAT devices, offering consistent behaviour and expectations for applications. It also offers tolerance for greater traffic variations.
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DS-Lite enables dual use of PIv4 and PIv6 addresses, which A10 says will help companies with the migration process. It outsources Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) embedded NAT capabilities to the carrier NAT device, which A10 says keeps a single layer of NAT.
A10 Networks was formed in 2004 by Chen, how had previously founded both Foundry Networks and Centillion. A10 is headquartered in San Jose, California and has offices around the world. Its clients include Microsoft, Positni, WebEx, The Huffington Post and Gap.
