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The American Registry for Internet Numbers (News - Alert) (ARIN), a nonprofit corporation that manages the distribution of Internet number resources, and NTT America, a wholly owned U.S. subsidiary of NTT Communications Corporation and a global IP network services provider, have announced that NTT America has provided ARIN with a dual stack over a Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) connection.

At speeds of up to 1,000 megabits per second (mbps) and running both IPv4 and IPv6 or dual stacks, the GigE connection ensures Web site and e-mail connections to and from ARIN are visible over both IPv4 and IPv6. In addition, all other systems or communications ARIN operates can also continue running over IPv6.

“As an organization, ARIN is in a position to both participate in IPv6 adoption and encourage the Internet community to do the same. This is not just a choice but a necessity as the depletion of IPv4 address space continues,” said Raymond A. Plzak, President and CEO of ARIN, in a Tuesday statement.

 

“NTT America’s upgrade of our network provides us not only new IPv6 services, but another opportunity to prove our commitment as an organization to using IPv6.”

Today, only about 15 percent of the IPv4 address pool is still in place and that percentage decreases every month. There are people now voluntarily attempting to reach mail and Web servers via IPv6 connections to the Internet. Once the IPv4 address pool is depleted, people will try to reach the Internet and company contacts through IPv6 only.

As a result, any organization with a Web site and communicates via e-mail must ensure those services are visible over both IPv4 and IPv6. The NTT American IPv6 transit service is ARIN’s 4^th IPv6 deployment and the new IPv6-enabled circuit is an upgrade to an existing NTT America transit circuit. ARIN has been operating on IPv6 since 2003.

“ARIN is a major advocate for IPv6. As one of the five Regional Internet Registries, they have firsthand knowledge and experience with the depletion of IPv4 address blocks and the necessity to move to IPv6,” said Michael Wheeler, vice president of Sales and Business Development for NTT America, in a Tuesday statement.

 

“The Internet and engineering communities hold ARIN in high regard and this lead-by-example upgrade to IPv6 services will no doubt inspire confidence that IPv6 is important, functional and useable.”

The transition to IPv6 is not only increasing, it is a required change, making it necessary for ARIN to seek a solution that met this requirement, while also allowing the company to be in a position to encourage others. This successful transition will work well in its favor to continue to promote the advantages of IPv6 to drive voluntary changes.