[IP] U.S. government IPv6 testing must go on
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From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: August 21, 2005 8:35:09 PM EDT
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] U.S. government IPv6 testing must go on
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
U.S. government IPv6 testing must go on
Defense Department testing next-generation protocol to meet 2008
compatibility target
By Grant Gross, IDG News Service
August 19, 2005
<http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/19/HNipv6testing_1.html?
source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/08/19/
HNipv6testing_1.html>
WASHINGTON -- Normally, August in the Washington, D.C., area is a
time for many workers to take vacation and escape the near-tropical
conditions. But the parking lot outside a Northern Virginia facility
operated by the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Information
Systems Agency (DISA) was filled Wednesday morning.
The work of DISA, with the job of creating, acquiring and testing
technology equipment for the Defense Department, must continue
through the sweltering August weather. In one of the DISA building's
lab areas, more than a dozen Defense Department contractors were
subjecting hardware products to a variety of tests.
Among the pressing matters in one of several testing labs at DISA was
testing of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), the next generation of
protocol that allows computers to communicate over the Internet. The
Defense Department has set 2008 as a target for making its computer
systems compatible with IPv6, although the agency had formerly
mandated IPv6 compatibility by then. Even though the target is no
longer a mandate, testing IPv6 remains an important priority.
John Mealey III, a systems engineer with DISA contractor Spirent
Federal, was overseeing a number of tests Wednesday, including an
IPv6 router conformance test. Spirent’s IPv6 products also test
performance and functionality and validate interoperability of dual
IPv4/IPv6 devices and networks.
"Our equipment tests and verifies what the manufacturer says it
does," Mealey said. "We're just trying to see if the equipment works
as advertised."
The DISA lab where IPv6 is tested includes rows and rows of server
racks, filled servers, firewall appliances, telecommunications
switches, and other equipment. Boxes of loose networking cable sit in
corners, on one desk sat more than a half-dozen used phones. The lab,
with about $70 million worth of hardware in it, was packed with
equipment, including Dell (Profile, Products, Articles) servers and
Sun Microsystems (Profile, Products, Articles) workstations. In one
section of the lab, a worker had a PC set up on a large networking
cable spool.
Spirent Federal, a spin-off of a U.K. performance testing vendor,
announced in October 2003 it would be the only test equipment vendor
to help the Defense Department test the first phase of its IPv6 roll-
out. DISA uses a variety of Spirent testing equipment in its labs,
including its Adtech AX/4000 appliance, which runs a suite of IPv6
tests.
Spirent Federal, formed four years ago, focuses on the U.S. defense
and intelligence agencies, said Steve Naylor, director of Broadband
East for the spin-off. "That's mission critical networking," he
added. "If their networks don't work, people die."
[snip]
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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