IPv6 Service Provider – Transitioning to IPv6

IPv6 – Making Room for the Next Billion Internet Users

IPv6 is the next generation Internet Protocol (IP) address standard intended to supplement, and eventually replace, the IPv4 protocol most Internet services use today. To help ensure the continued rapid growth of the Internet as a platform for innovation, IPv6 tackles some of IPv4's shortcomings - most notably a limited amount of remaining addresses. While the technical foundations of IPv6 are well established, significant work remains to deploy and begin using IPv6 capabilities.

Because IPv6 is central to the continued growth and stability of the Internet, XO Communications is working with other organizations to promote its deployment by sharing information and helping to build the required operational capability among the Internet community.

IPv6 Basics – A Transition from Existing Network Addressing

The basics of IPv6 are similar to those of IPv4 -- devices can use IPv6 as source and destination addresses to pass packets over a network, and tools like ping work for network testing as they do in IPv4, with some slight variations.

IPv6 Supports source and destination addresses that are 128 bits to provide more address space that can be used more flexibly and effectively.

The general format for a global IPv6 unicast address is comprised of 3 elements: A Global Routing Prefix + Subnet ID + Interface ID within the 128 bits used for IPv6. The IPv6 Interface ID is used to identify interfaces on a link, and is required to be unique within a subnet prefix.

The five Regional Internet Registries (ARIN, APNIC, etc) will move toward issuing ñtitlesî to IPv4 and IPv6 address space rather than allocating blocks. ARIN is currently developing an open source package for x.509 certification of resource ownership to facilitate this change.

What IPv6 Provides

Reduces time, management & complexity associated with IP Configuration Practices
Re-establish transparency and end to end QoS shaped traffic on the Internet
Improved Multicasting Functionality on all IPv6 Platforms
Enhanced mobile node capabilities

Our Readiness

XO Communications is ready and able to support the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Our network is peered with other major ISPs that have accepted their role in supporting IPv6 and many of our customers presently use IPv6 addressing across the XO network as a dual stack arrangement with IPv4.

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