ITWire

The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 as the Internet's basic protocol is being driven largely by the imminent exhaustion of the IPv4 address space. One of the big advantages of IPv6 is its astronomically large number of addresses.

Verizon first introduced IPv6 capabilities to its network in 1998, beginning with its very high speed backbone Internet service. The company's latest announcement is that IPv6 is available on its Internet Dedicated Services.

"This is another important milestone for the Verizon public IP backbone, our customers and the global Internet community," said Farooq Muzzafar, vice president of public and private IP communications solutions for Verizon. "As an early proponent and adopter of IPv6, we want to help ensure the Internet continues to deliver on its promise to keep us all connected to each other and to the information that sustains and enriches our everyday life at work, at home and everywhere in between."

Later this year IPv6 capability will be added to Verizon's network in Canada and Latin America, and to its MPLS-based global private IP service.

Verizon's IPv6 implementation supports pure IPv6, dual stack (IPv4 and IPv6 concurrently), and tunnelling (IPv6 within IPv4).