The IPv6 Forum, the North American IPv6 Task Force, and Charmed Technology, Inc. today announced that the U.S. IPv6 Summit 2003 will be held December 8 - 11, 2003 in Arlington, VA, at the Doubletree Crystal City. The U.S. IPv6 Summit 2003 will focus on deployment, technical depth of key IPv6 features, and applications or services of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).

IPv6, the next generation network layer protocol of the Internet, is designed to: expand availability of IP address space to accommodate the worldwide explosion of Internet use, facilitate mobile communications, enhance quality of digital services and ease system management burdens. Additionally, IPv6 restores end-to-end networking for security and applications.

Government, industry, academia, media and almost all users of the Internet have used the current version of Internet Protocol, IPv4, for almost 30 years. The fundamental limitations in the current IPv4 protocol render it incapable of meeting the long-term requirements of industry and government. IPv6 is designed to overcome those limitations.

“This particular IPv6 Summit will be focused on deployment, technical depth of key IPv6 features, applications/services for IPv6, and will be a must attend for any entity wanting to deploy or adopt IPv6,” said Jim Bound, Chair of the North American IPv6 Task Force, Chair of the IPv6 Forum Technical Directorate and HP Fellow. He added, “Any myths that IPv6 is not necessary/ready for deployment, or myths that IPv6 can not lead us to the next generation Internet today, will be forgotten after the summit.”

“U.S. DoD made a big splash on IPv6. This decision will jolt industry out of its lethargy. The DoD runs one of the largest enterprise IP networks worldwide to become net-centric and empower its large-scale edge. Is IPv6 - to be defended or to defend? Come and see for yourself,” said Latif Ladid, IPv6 Forum President, Internet Society Trustee, and Chair of the European Commission IPv6 Task Force. 

The attendance, keynote addresses and content of the U.S. IPv6 Summit 2003 will focus on the near term deployment of IPv6. The summit will bring together policy makers, business leaders, academic professionals and media with IPv6 technology experts to share knowledge and participate in making decisions about the hardware, software and services related to IPv6. The summit keynotes from Jim Bound, Chair of the North American IPv6 Task Force, and The Honorable John L. Osterholz, Director of Architecture and Interoperability, Department of Defense, will summarize the current picture and set the course for deployments of IPv6. Speakers at the summit will give in depth, highly technical talks on IPv6 services and applications, in addition to describing North American and international initiatives for large-scale deployment of IPv6.

“This IPv6 Summit is an important part of the transition to IPv6, in part because it was organized to assist the Department of Defense in its IPv6 mandates by gathering the world’s top v6 experts together with the world’s most powerful users—the war fighters and their people who procure their technology—as well as the leading experts from industry, academia, and other parts of government,” said Alex Lightman, Marketing Director of the North American IPv6 Task Force and Co-founder and CEO of Charmed Technology.