Foundry’s router supports IPv6

Large enterprise companies and service providers are starting to see more equipment supporting IP Version 6. For instance, Foundry Networks this month will ship a router that counts IPv6 support among its capabilities.

The NetIron 4802 is a router in a stackable form, with 48 ports of 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet and two ports of Gigabit Ethernet.

Helping the device to run IPv6 is a 500-MHz PowerPC processor and application-specific integrated circuits. It can process routing requests “superfast,” can handle “millions” of BGP routes, and can use access control lists at wirespeed, the company claims.

One of the key benefits of IPv6 is the number of IP addresses that the protocol can handle. IPv6 has a 128-bit address space, a big jump from the 32-bit address space of the previous version. So, organizations that have to deal with lots and lots of IP devices – like service providers – are drawn to IPv6 for that reason. This need increases as we start to see everything from IP phones to digital security cameras on data networks.

The Foundry router has traffic monitoring abilities, so that network managers can track both IPv4 and IPv6 packets.

The NetIron 4802 has a list price of $15,000.