NASA Leads Federal Government In World IPv6 Launch

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Jun 06, 2012, 03:43 ET

WASHINGTON, June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA is the first U.S. federal agency to participate in the World IPv6 Launch. Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) will replace IPv4 as the communication protocol used to direct most of the traffic on the Internet. IPv6 will enable an increase in the number of IP addresses, support more devices and users and improve the efficiency of traffic routing the traffic on the Internet.

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Organized by the Internet Society of Reston, Va., World IPv6 Launch on June 6, 2012 is intended to motivate organizations across the industry – including Internet service providers (ISPs), hardware makers, and web companies – to prepare for and permanently enable IPv6 on their products and services as IPv4 address space runs out.

World IPv6 Launch will mark the largest industry commitment to and deployment of IPv6 in the history of the Internet, with ISPs, home networking equipment manufacturers and web companies around the world permanently enabling IPv6 within their products and services.

NASA has enabled its main website at http://www.nasa.gov and about 75 other websites to support both IPv4 and IPv6 at the same time.

NASA's participation in World IPv6 Launch is one example of the agency's commitment to ensure the public will continue to have access to NASA's websites.

For more information about the agency, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

SOURCE NASA