Comcast demonstrated what it said was "end-to-end network readiness" for the transition to the next-generation Internet protocols, at the North American Network Operators Group's 46th meeting (NANOG46) being held this week in Philadelphia
At the same event, Comcast also announced the availability of national high-speed Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) transit for wholesale customers, such as Web hosting companies, that connect to the operator's network to transfer data to their customers.
IPv6 is an Internet standard that provides a much larger pool of addresses -- 2 to the 128th power, or roughly equivalent to the number of known stars in our universe -- than the current IPv4 standard, which provides about 4 billion unique addresses.
Comcast said worked with several of its current wholesale transit customers including The Planet, a provider of information-technology hosting services, and BitGravity, which sells Internet video-distribution services. The MSO said it currently hosts 17.8 million Web sites on its network.
"Today's demonstration is an important milestone in the testing and integration of IPv6 across Comcast's network and systems in preparation for IPv6 addresses and content becoming more widely available in the future," John Leddy, Comcast senior vice president of network engineering, said in a statement.
