World IPv6 Day, designed to provide a makeshift test run for the conversion of IP endpoints to the latest addressing scheme, transpired on June 6, 2012, with little mainstream fanfare. Despite the lack of large-font headlines, the implications of acceleration in the shift to IPv6 have significant impact on nearly every touch point in the communications industry ecosystem.

The conversion of IPv4 to IPv6 impacts the product plans of every supplier – from device maker to core router manufacturer – and presents a tremendous challenge for operators, which must ensure that every aspect of their infrastructure concerned with IP packets, including operational systems, are conditioned to deal with the existing and new addressing scheme.

The transition to IPv6 also has implications for regions that have been particularly impacted by the shortage of IPv4 address space. The Asia Pacific region, though with notable exceptions, such as Japan, trailed western continents in terms of Internet adoption, resulting in a disproportion of the roughly 4 billion IPv4 addresses being parceled out to North American and European operators. The move to IPv6, which essentially delivers an infinite amount of unique IP addresses, offers AsiaPac-located operators a chance to escape the constraints of limited address space.

So while World IPv6 Day drew only a minimal amount of attention earlier this month, it marks the opportunity for a status check of what is arguably one of the most important but least talked-about issues confronting the communications industry.

The fortunate aspect of the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses is that the amount of available addresses juxtaposed with the rapid growth of the Internet community gave the IETF and other industry groups ample warning that a new system would eventually be needed. Beginning in 2009, in fact, most of the equipment going into the core of the network (routers and other transport gear), was capable of recognizing and forwarding IPv6 formatted packet. This has provided operators with a much-needed head start in updating the core of their networks, the traditional starting point for major technology transitions, such as TDM to VoIP.

Accordingly, most of the remaining IPv4-to-IPv6 activity will be following a core-to-edge trajectory. While GENBAND’s core switching products have been IPv6 enabled for some time, the emphasis has now moved to the network borders, fortifying session border controllers (SBC) with the ability to condition all Internet traffic, whether IPv4 or IPv6, to complete the end-to-end trek across the Internet.

GENBAND’s Intelligent S3™ SBC achieved complete IPv6-ready status at the end of 2011, offering operators multiple options, including translation capabilities and dual-stacks, for handling a mix of IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.

The reality is that like all telecommunications transitions, the migration from IPv4 to IPv6 will not happen overnight. Even though state-of-the-art technology, such as LTE is equipped to support native IPv6, millions of applications and end devices that surround the Internet will be tethered to the IPv4 address scheme for years to come.

As results of the World IPv6 Day indicate, the transition to IPv6 will be deliberate and, if things go well, uneventful.