IPv6 products make splash at N+I Tokyo

It’s that time of year again. NetWorld + Interop 2003 Tokyo was conducted from July 2nd to July 4th, at Makuhari, Chiba Prefecture in Japan. The largest networking show in Japan is rapidly getting known as a venue for IPv6 products to get together. ShowNet, the show network, supports both IPv4 and IPv6. Many solutions that utilize IPv6, such as consumer electronics products, as well as IPv6-enabled networking devices filled the floor of special exhibit space named “IPv6 ShowCase”. This year, 38 companies and organizations participated or cooperated with the IPv6 ShowCase to attract a great number of visitors. Let’s take a look at the exhibits at IPv6 ShowCase.


HD recorders plus many more IPv6 solutions on display

Demonstation of HD recorder control by Freebit

Sharp PDA Zaurus with IPv6 implementation

First, let’s look at application products and services that utilizes IPv6, before IPv6 infrastructure components.

Freebit, a venture firm in ISP support business currently conducting Feel6Farm, a large scale IPv6 trial in Japan that uses DTCP for dynamic IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling, announced at the show that it had started a new trial of remote controlling Sony Cocoon Channel Server hard disk recorder by mobile phone terminal via IPv6. The company conducted a demo of this trial at IPv6 ShowCase. The trial uses special IPv6-support version of the hard disk recorder, and IPv4/IPv6 translator for remote control by IPv6. The company said this is expected to be the future of Sony’s online record reservation service.

Sanyo Electric demoed IPv6 digital camera with wireless card and IPv6-enabled TV (both products are not commercially offered yet). The demo appealed the fun and convenience of showing taken pictures without delay, by immediately sending them to TV with IPv6 support. The system manages to make transmission and viewing of pictures transparent to the users. Panasonic Communications showed and IPv6-enabled experimental version of its network camera with pan and tilt features.

Chuo Electric Company (CEC) displayed ND Series, which connects devices and sensors to IP network for monitoring and remote control. The company currently has two IPv6-enabled products: ND-EW04 for analog and contact point input, and ND-VD01 for MPEG2 video transmission. They both support IPsec. The two products are officially sold.


IPv6 support by network devices matures

Router vendors that displayed IPv6 products included Juniper Networks, Cisco Systems, Hitachi, Foundry Networks, IPinfusion, 6WIND, IIJ, Fujitsu, NEC, and Allied Telesyn. There is an increasing support for IPv6 Multicast, DHCP Prefix Delegation (automatic network prefix notification to CPE routers), and Mobile IPv6 among core products of these vendors.

Cisco Systems demoed IPv6 Multicast using core to access routers (Cisco 12404 supports hardware processing of IPv6 Multicast), DHCP-PD between Cisco 7200VXR and Cisco 1750, and mobile environment between Cisco 2600XM with Mobile IPv4/IPv6 Home Agent feature and Cisco Mobile Access Router. On advanced IPv6 feature support among access router series, Cisco Japan says DHCP PD will be supported this year, while IPv6 firewall feature will be released towards next year. Mobile IPv6 support will be released to be consistent with standardization development.

Hitachi debuted GR4000 Series, an IPv4/IPv6 router with 160Gbps backplane switching capacity with 10Gbps Ethernet connectivity support. The series has hardware-assisted IPv6 Multicast handling capability. The company also demonstrated new IPv6 Multicast support in IPv4/IPv6 broadband access server AG-8100B

Foundry Networks demonstrated IPv6 support in its products in N+I last year. This year, the company brought in BigIron 8000 and NetIron 4802 to IPv6 ShowCase. IPv6 support for NetIron 4802 will be officially released in August. Foundry will support IPv6 in its core products in Q4 2003 with hardware assist, while IPv6 Multicast will be supported in Q1 2004. Basic IPv6 support in ServerIron load balancing switch will be implemented in three months, he said.

Fujitsu demonstrated IPv6 Multicast and DHCP PD support on GeoStream R920, its top range router with IPv6 hardware routing feature. The company also showed access router GeoStream Si-R500 and IPCOM v4/v6 transtlator. F5 Networks Japan showed BIG-IP Application Switch. F5 is in the process of incorporating load balancing for IPv6 nodes and Mobile IPv6 support in this load balance switch. Yokogawa Electric displayed IPv6/IPv4 translator TTB3010 and DNS proxy TTB1020+.

NEC showed CX6820-SS, a SIP server with IPv6 support, and MX5840-NT, IPv4/IPv6 translator for SIP and RTP.

In IPv6 network testing category, Toyo Technica demonstrated testing equipments by Spirent Communications, while Nihon Cornet Technology introduced STORM, a network simulator.

IPsec processing LSI by Fujitsu LSI

Security related vendors participating in this event included NetScreen Technologies Japan, which showed IPv6 support in its firewall/VPN device. Screen OS, the platform for NetScreen products will officially support IPv6 in September 2003. Supported features will include IPv6 firewall/application gateway, IPv4/IPv6 translation, IPsec, PPPoE, and IPv6CP. Accense Technology demonstrated DHCP PD feature in fullflex RADIUS, its authentication/network service product.

Fujitsu LSI Solutions showed MB68xxx, an IPsec processing LSI supporting IPv4 and IPv6. It supports DES, 3DES and AES for encryption algorithms. Official release is slated later in 2003.

In embedded solutions, Elmic System, Wind River, AXE, an ACCESS introduced their products.


Products outside IPv6 ShowCase

Elsewhere in N+I, Panasonic demoed MPEG2/TS video transmission solution for HiVision quality video distribution on IPv4 and IPv6. Hamamatsu Photonics displayed Digital Video Streaming Syastem C920, a DV over IP video streaming device with IPv4/IPv6 Multicast support. This product is already on sale. Hitachi showed in its corporate booth two IPv6 solutions: multimedia multi-point video conferencing solution and mobility management solution withMobile IPv6 and IPsec. Both solutions will be formally introduced in September 2003. Internet Security Systems announced Proventia, an intrusion detection/protection appliance, with IPv6 support.