We are very grateful to the outstanding companies who are also willing to share their knowledge of IPv6, including the IPv6 Promotional Council of Japan, Windermere, Juniper Networks, Inc., Spirent Federal Systems, Ixia, Agilent Technologies, Microsoft Corporation, NTT Communications, Inc., Extreme Networks, InfoWorld, and The Washington Post.

I believe that 6Sense is the leading international publication on the New Internet, IPv6, and that this is our greatest issue, marking the beginning of our second year of publication. We had so many submissions this month that I had to move a number of articles to our June issue. We have great articles, such as the Japanese government contribution, which notes (in parentheses) that the prime minister is the head of their IT strategy team. No wonder they are ahead of all their written goals on the way to being the #1 IT nation: they plan their work (for IPv6), and then they work their plan. I thank all of the companies and authors who contributed.

Interest has been growing for our upcoming conference on the New Internet, the Coalition Summit for IPv6 (http://www.coalitionsummit.com), which takes place from May 23-26, 2005 at the Hyatt Regency, in Reston, Virginia, just five minutes by taxi east of Dulles International Airport. This is the same venue where we held our highly successful US IPv6 Summit last December.

What makes the Coalition Summit for IPv6 something that everyone who is part of the IPv6 community should attend?

1. 50 world class speakers on the Future of the Internet. Considering how powerfully the first Internet boom impacted the world, don't you want to be able to get an all you can eat buffet equivalent of the highest quality, quantity, variety, and freshness of expert opinion on the New Internet? Wouldn't you like to know, personally, the people who are making the decisions to move to IPv6, why they believe IPv6 can meet their highly diverse organizational objectives, and how and when and with what equipment, partners, and funding they are going to go about it? The best place for this information is at the Coalition Summit for IPv6, so you might as well come and be one of the best informed people on the planet on v6.

 
2. The highest level military speakers ever. At this event, joining Dr. Linton Wells, the CIO of the US Department of Defense, we have the three star generals who are the CIOs of the Army and Air Force (General Hobbins takes office as we go to press, and we congratulate and salute him), as well as honored generals from Europe and Asia, and one my favorite speakers from our last Summit, retired General Alonzo Short, the founding director of DISA. These are the people who make the life or death technology decisions that relate to Network-Centric Operations, and, as you will hear at the Coalition Summit, the US and its allies can't achieve their stretch goals for Net-Centric Warfare (basically, 21st century warfare) without IPv6. I think that the current generals running the US military are the smartest ever, with a technical expertise that puts to rest the old cliché that "Generals are always preparing to fight the last war."

 
3. The broadest participation from the closest US allies. From what I can see, Japan, Australia, Germany, the UK, Korea, Pakistan, the members of the European Union and other countries present are the allies most committed to cooperating over the long term with the US, to make sure that our intra-alliance communications are more mobile, flexible, secure, and adaptable. Every nation on earth owes a debt of gratitude to the United States federal government for the incredible gift of the Internet. It will now be interesting to see which global communities really show up to cooperate with the US, to ask, "How can we collaborate and how can our nations help?"

 
4. Announcements and calls for action relating to the US migration to IPv6. I will be making the case in my own talk for the US federal government as a whole - not just the Dept. of Defense - to move to IPv6 by 2008 and to take that date as seriously as we did Y2K. I will also make the case for all close allies of the US to join forces, and synchronize their move to IPv6, adopting similar and congruent definitions, certification plans, joint test beds, and other actions that will allow us to move as a "co-evolving platform" for expanded military, governmental, industrial, and academic possibilities. I believe that announcements by the policy makers who are keynote speakers at the Summit will make history, right from our very first presentation, by Congressman Tom Davis (R-VA), chairman of the government reform committee in the House of Representatives.

 
5. The opportunity to start or join IPv6 action teams. The Summit will be a golden opportunity to discuss your own IPv6-related initiatives, and to find people who can team up with you, or for you to be drawn to the project of someone else, and to ask if you can help support them. 2005 is the year that you should take a leadership position on a team doing an actual IPv6 implementation of some kind, so that you can build your track record. At the moment, there are tens of thousands of people in Japan, Korea, and China, with multiyear IPv6 implementation experience that they can put on their resumes and also use as the basis for getting government or corporate funding. If you aren't there yet, there is no better place, and no better time, to get yourself on the train before Longhorn hits the street and everyone says they are an IPv6 expert. These are the proverbial "good old days" that come right before venture capital and job opportunities and promotions and career accelerations happen. Put the band together and start playing.

I have personally invested in this conference to make it affordable and available (especially for government employees and students), because I believe that moving to IPv6 gives us the highest national "Return On Investment" of anything that the US could do. I also know that attendance at the Coalition Summit is the closest thing to a presidential election to choose whether you want a better Internet for everyone, in the US and around the world. Vote for a move to a better connected world, and join us at the Coalition Summit for IPv6.

Sincerely,

Alex Lightman
Chairman, Coalition Summit for IPv6

Japan has been putting emphasis on the development of Information and Communications Technology through the united efforts of government and industry, based on the "e-Japan Strategy," which was formulated in 2001 by IT Strategy Headquarters (Chair: the Prime Minister) within the Cabinet, with the aim of making Japan the world's leading nation in the ICT field by the year 2005. The e-Japan Strategy involves not only the support of an advanced Internet infrastructure, but also the promotion of a transition to the IPv6 Internet.

As a result of policies that encourage competition and active participation by many new companies, we are seeing deployment of both DSL and FTTH networks, communications charges have been reduced to levels not seen in other countries, and, at the same time, traffic speed is faster than anywhere else.

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Security Architectures

The deployment of Internet information systems based upon the IPv6 protocol presents new challenges to system developers. While the IPv6 network protocol includes many security improvements over the current IPv4 protocols, it also presents significant new unsolved problems for information system security engineers. Problems include defining and controlling enclaves, designing boundary security systems, mapping network topology, conducting intrusion detection, and assessing vulnerabilities. Other issues include certification and accreditation, and security testing.

Defining Enclaves
The conventional information system security process begins with a definition of security domains including information systems, users, and security policies. Security requirements are mapped to enclaves of trusted systems and users separated from untrusted users and systems by boundary systems. Network security systems provide security services to the enclaves by defining, defending, and monitoring network traffic...

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Juniper Networks is excited about its role as an active participant during the upcoming Coalition Summit for IPv6, May 23-26, 2005 in Reston, VA. With operational experience providing IPv6 environments to leading-edge institutions, Juniper Networks understands that as the importance of the Internet continues to increase dramatically, organizations need to unlock the potential of the next generation of the Internet - IPv6.

The Coalition Summit for IPv6 focuses on the global adoption of IPv6 to enable innovation, technology, and leadership for tomorrow. Juniper Networks understands that IPv6 represents a crucial component of the effort to turn the promises of technology advancement into achievable realities, while improving reliability, integrating security, and easing network management. As such, Juniper Networks - like the IPv6 Summit - continues to commit resources toward the promotion and education of the benefits of IPv6.

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Before Going Live, Test Equipment and Methods Can Assure Voice, Data and Video Play Well Together

Adding voice to an existing IP data network without testing all potential scenarios is sure to create a network territory where users fear to tread. In telephony, the ultimate test lies with delivering delay-free, public switched telephone network (PSTN) grade service the first time and ever after.

To meet this goal, service providers expecting to launch converged IP services must apply a phased approach to equipment and network testing, service validation and ongoing performance and service assurance if they are truly to achieve success with paying customers. The process must confirm not only that voice and the IP network perform well together, but also that voice, data and other applications do not threaten one another's performance along the way.

Consequently, what is required is a complete set of test equipment and software tools, together with a set of rigorous testing methodologies designed specifically for the equipment, configurations and engineering designs that make up converged IP networks. Given the right tools and methodology, the process can be thorough, assure five-9's performance at the highest stress levels even before customers touch the services, and can allow the service provider to avoid mopping up a faulty service which has been deployed too early - all without adding unnecessary delays in time to market...

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IxANVL 6.80 dominates the IPv6 conformance testing market with addition of BGP4+ Protocol.

Calabasas, CA -- April 4, 2005 - Ixia (Nasdaq: XXIA), a leading, global provider of IP network testing solutions, announced today that the latest release of its industry-leading IxANVL conformance and interoperability test solution expands its comprehensive network protocol support. IxANVL 6.80 adds validation for the BGP4+ IP routing protocol, extending an array of conformance tests for IPv6 networks that already make IxANVL a dominant test tool in this market segment. To read the full Press Release, click here.

To learn more about conformance testing with IxANVL, visit our website at www.ixiacom.com/ixanvl

Voice, Video and Data over IPv6: Unproven?

Service Providers are scrambling to offer voice, video, data, and innovative services such as gaming, interactive TV and messaging on a single pipe. At the same time, network equipment is being upgraded to IPv6. To support these "multi-play" services, application-aware devices such as firewalls, session border controllers (SBCs) and content delivery systems need to filter and switch at layer 7. Taking firewalls as an example, vendors only recently added support for VoIP and video application filtering and IPv6 - so the intersection of these technologies, "triple play over IPv6," is relatively unproven...

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Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is designed to solve many of the problems encountered on today's networks. IPv6 will support new classes of computing and communication paradigms that are difficult to deliver on the existing IPv4 infrastructure due to the deployment of Network Address Translators. End-to-end network connectivity is broken, and applications scenarios that rely on this either break inexplicably, or are very expensive to develop and deploy. IPv6 is the only way to restore network hygiene and support the scalability required for continued growth. However, IPv6 deployment will not happen overnight, and there's widespread misperception about the interdependency between infrastructure readiness and application readiness. IPv6 transition technologies play a crucial role in breaking through this inter-dependency, and Microsoft is working diligently toward delivering its suite of products to support IPv6 in the near future.

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As the global leader in IPv6 deployment and services, NTT Communications has just put another stake in the ground by announcing the next generation of its Virtual Private Server (VPS), offering web hosting customers the opportunity to host on a dual stack IPv4/IPv6 web hosting platform. VPS is a fully managed hosting environment that gives customers their own UNIX virtual machine. Although it is a web hosting platform, VPS’s capabilities go well beyond web hosting. A broad suite of IPv6 web hosting and mail services, as well as a number of other utilities is offered. Dual Stack VPS users will have access to IPv6 Apache, sendmail, POP, IMAP, SSH, FTP, ping6, and traceroute6.

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The transition to IPv6 is well under way with the help of methods that allow the coexistence of IPv6 networks with IPv4 networks. As IPv6 progresses through early adoption, it will be deployed more frequently in large networks worldwide.

Because IPv6 traffic is already present on most networks, new security threats exist whether enterprises and service providers choose to adopt IPv6 in the short term or wait for critical mass. The challenge is to evaluate the implications of this transitional period and plan accordingly.

Extreme Networks addresses these concerns with a product architecture and network operating system that were built ground-up for IPv6.

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InfoWorld's SOA Executive Forum: Enabling Business Agility

6Sense readers are invited to attend the definitive event exclusively focused on enabling business agility through a service-oriented architecture (SOA) this May in New York, New York or in San Jose, California.

SEE THE DETAILS HERE

TechNews on washingtonpost.com provides technology, business and policy leaders with:

• The day's most important technology news from across the country
• Insights into the interaction between technology and government policy
• The latest developments in the dynamic and growing government IT sector
• Trusted reporting from the Washington Post Company and its tech and business publications

Publisher's Intro and Invitation

Current Activities by the Ministry of Internal affairs and Communications of Japan to deploy IPv6
Masahiko Fujimoto
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan

IPv6 Security Architectures
Dr. Myron L. Cramer
Vice President, Windermere

Juniper Networks Committed to Unlocking the Potential of the Next Generation of the Internet - IPv6
Juniper Networks, Inc.

Fault Diagnosis in Converged IP Networks
Tri Do
Systems Engineer
Spirent Federal Systems

Ixia Extends Comprehensive Protocol Support for its Conformance Test Solution
Ixia

Triple Play or Triple Delay?
John Nakulski
Agilent Technologies

Microsoft IPv6 Strategy
Leigh Huang
Lead Program Manager - IPv6
Microsoft Corporation

The Maturity of IPv6 Leads to Virtual Private Server Web Hosting
Cody Christman
Director of Product Engineering
NTT Communications, Inc.

IPv6 Is Out There. Is Your Network Ready For It?
Extreme Networks

InfoWorld Event: SOA Executive Forum

Washington Post

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Coalition Summit for IPv6
Reston, VA

May 23-26, 2005

Global Coalition Comes Together for New Internet.

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