NTT America and a Tier-1 global IP network services provider will be highlighting an IPTV streaming video over IPv6 demonstration at the 12th Annual Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee Kickoff Technology Policy Exhibition on January 13, 2009 at the Hart Senate Office Building in Washington D.C. The Tech Policy Exhibition showcases the compelling technology and Internet policy issues that will dominate Congressional discussions around the Internet as a medium for communications, commerce and democracy.

NTT America has participated at ICAC’s Tech Policy Exhibition for the last five years, recently providing demonstrations that attest to the long term viability of current and emerging applications to take advantage of IPv6, such as last year’s demonstration of the IPv6 based Earthquake Early Warning System. The company provides the Internet backbone, transit, infrastructure, and services that enable scalable implementations of leading edge products and solutions.

In 2005, the Office of Management and Budget mandated that government agencies enable their core networks for IPv6, and in June of 2008 they announced that all major U.S. government agencies had met the deadline on successfully demonstrating IPv6 capability. The next step is the “deployment of secure, end-to-end, IPv6-enabled network services which support federal agency core missions and applications” from the Business Case and Roadmap for Completing IPv6 Adoption in US Government draft document, which is currently open for review and comment. The draft version, comments template, and associated release memorandum are posted on OMB’s Federal Enterprise Architecture website.

While demand for IPTV is increasing, the number of IPv4 addresses is decreasing. According to the American Registry for Internet Numbers, the availability of IPv4 addresses is down to 15 percent with the number decreasing every month. It is estimated that by mid-2012 the pool of IPv4 addresses will run out, creating a sense of urgency for the adoption and implementation of IPv6. IPv6 solves the address crunch problem by offering a vastly expanded usable addresses space. IPv6 also offers a significant number of benefits for the development of new IP based applications, such as IPTV.

IPv6 is the successor to IPv4, the current protocol used on the Internet. IPv6’s basically infinite address space offers scalability for a large number of always-on customers. This creates end to end IP address transparency between the company and the customer, simplifying applications like broadcast IPTV, VoIP and P2P applications. IPv6 offers lower capital and operational expenses for operators which can lead to lower prices for users. Finally, IPv6 offers a number of enhancements for multicast and quality of service support.