IPv6 Marches Forward.

This article focuses on the efforts of Asian companies to promote adoption of the next-generation Internet Protocol (IP) called IPv6. The IPv4, limits the Internet to approximately 4 billion unique addresses. Because U.S. companies control the majority of those addresses, there has been no hurry to deploy IPv6 in the U.S. By contrast, however, Asian companies, backed by government investments and mandates, have been aggressively rolling out IPv6. But more than balancing supply and demand, Asian governments and companies also see IPv6 as a business opportunity, an opportunity to innovate and leapfrog the rest of the world. By making it easier to assign Internet addresses to devices and services, IPv6 could accelerate adoption of new applications such as third generation mobile services, gaming, smart consumer appliances, smart sensors, home automation and voice over IP. That potential for innovation may prove to be the biggest driver for IPv6 adoption in the U.S., as Asian IPv6-enabled products make their way westward. The biggest advantage of IPv6 global addressing will be its capability of facilitating applications that require fast, plug-and-play connections among peer devices on the edge of the network. INSETS: Where Are We Now?;VoIp and IPv6: A Perfect Pair.