The IPv6 transition mechanism is progressing exponentially in consequence of IPv4 exhaustion coupled with enhanced security, mobility and cost-effectiveness offered by IPv6 networks. A major player in the European telecom market desired to jump on the bandwagon with an IPv6 stack for its EFM DSL Network Termination Units. ThinkPalm took up the challenge of developing the IPv6 stack on a PSOS operating system that solely supported IPv4, leveraging NAT64, NDP and ALG technologies. Care was taken to ensure that no alteration was brought about to the existing application level protocols and other supporting functionalities, consequently reducing the product development and testing time considerably! With the integration of IPv6 stack with the current system, the device can now be seamlessly managed with both IPv4 and IPv6 networks.

Business Need

In today’s networking world where IPv6 support is proving to be mandatory for the management of network equipments, IPv6 support in the devices purchased is a prerequisite for a significant customer segment. Our end customer’s network termination unit supported IPv4 alone, limiting its management by IPv4 networks alone. ThinkPalm aimed at upgrading the currently deployed network from IPv4 to IPv6, without affecting the existing infrastructure. Since the already existing protocols required little change, the cost of development and time to market of the client were reduced substantially.