Pacnet delivers enhanced IPv6 services

Telecommunications service provider, Pacnet has announced the expansion of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) services to major cities across the Asia Pacific region, improving network performance and enabling businesses to simplify network management while avoiding the impending exhaustion of IPv4 addresses.

IP addresses are unique identifiers assigned to network devices, enabling communication on the Internet, and currently conform to the IPv4 standard. Less than 10 per cent of the 4.5 billion IPv4 addresses remained available as of January 2010, and IPv4 addresses will run out in late 2011 as according to regional Internet registry APNIC.

Wilfred Kwan, Chief Technology Officer of Pacnet, explained, “With Internet penetration still low in some of the larger Asia Pacific countries, the need to move to IPv6 is especially important in the Asia Pacific region to ensure that these rapidly growing economies have access to the IP addresses that are crucial to enable them to get online. Moreover, more governments are also mandating that their networks become IPv6 compliant, further driving the demand for IPv6 services.”

The IPv6 standard uses 128-bit addresses as compared to current 32-bit IPv4 addresses, creating a larger number of unique IP addresses and eliminating the problem of a shortage of web addresses. Another benefit that IPv6 introduces is improved network performance through additional network routing efficiencies as it negates the need for Network Address Translation (NAT) technology which has largely been deployed to delay the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses.

The latest IPv6 network upgrade from the telecommunications service provider involves the deployment of dual stack equipment which enhances the network’s performance when handling both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses. This also enables customers the flexibility to migrate to IPv6 while still retaining compatibility with legacy applications that need to remain on IPv4.
“Compared to other IPv4 to IPv6 transition technologies such as tunneling and header translation, our dual stack solution will improve network performance as well as allow our customers to benefit from easier network configuration and design as they will have access to more IP addresses,” noted Mr Kwan.

Pacnet connectivity services that offer IPv6 dual stack services include IP Transit, as well as Premium Metro Ethernet and Premium Leased Line Internet Access services. These IPv6 services are now available in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the US, with more locations to be added over the next two years.