The Ubiquitous Internet
Jean-Francois Tremblay, Hexago

The Consumer Electronics Show 2005 finished recently, and offered us a taste of what the year will bring in terms of new consumer electronic trends. A noticeable number of devices attracted attention by being IP-enabled: the Motorola Ojo video phone, Panasonic’s network cameras, SlingMedia’s Personal Broadcaster, and of course Sony’s Location Free TV. Orb Networks streaming services also demonstrated their ability to stream any media content from home, and SBC announced a whole new line of IP-based services, including VoIP and IPTV.
 
A convergence of new services and devices based on IP networks is clearly emerging. This trend is not surprising. IP makes it easy to communicate and stream content over existing networks, including the Internet. IP is, and has, a well defined set of standards. Subsequently, devices from different manufacturers can interoperate, making deployment of new services much simpler and more cost effective.
 
In a future that doesn’t look so far away right now, every single device that has to exchange information will be connected in a network. We are moving from an Internet comprised of PCs to an Internet comprised of appliances and mobile devices, an Internet of Things.
 
This Internet of Things brings a world of new possibilities for the gadget lover in every one of us. It’s now possible to watch your favorite TV shows recorded at home from anywhere in the world. Imagine being able to stream music continuously from a PC to your iPod while commuting by bus or in a car. Other mobile applications such as a videoconference meeting can be conducted on a mobile PDA, from the Starbucks across the street or any other location with an IP connection -- and you can get back to work without interruption.
 
However, these applications are not quite ready for wide scale deployment. Some technical requirements have to be in place to make them work smoothly. As owners of Sony Location Free TVs can attest, they are still far away from a “plug it in and it works” situation. People who purchased these mobile TVs have to pay to get a fixed IP address from their Internet provider in order to watch their favorite shows while traveling. Setting up the networking part is also non-trivial, and often requires the services of a computer-geek friend.
 
What exactly makes networking configurations so difficult? In the original Internet, every device had an address and could communicate with every other device. This made the Internet simple because configuring an address was all that was needed to communicate. However today, a technique called Network Address Translation (NAT) has proliferated to almost every enterprise and home network. This translation technique prevents each device from being uniquely identified by its address, and also blocks new incoming connections. This makes the deployment of new applications much more complex and expensive.
 
Because of NAT, devices and applications have to use all kind of tricks to receive incoming connections from the outside. This scenario complicates deployment of IP services. A good example of that is the well-known VoIP application Skype. In order to work properly behind NAT devices, Skype has to keep a channel open at all times to another Skype user who has a public address. This increases the application complexity, and therefore introduces additional development and deployment costs.
 
IPv6, the new version of the Internet Protocol, will allow every device connected to the network to have a permanent and unique IP address that solves these issues. IPv6 allows every single device to be reachable through a publicly visible global address. The possibility to uniquely identify every single device connected to the network is one of the main drivers for IPv6. A large number of addresses is not in itself a motivation to deploy IPv6, but rather is an essential condition for scaled IP-based services.
 
IPv6 solves the reachability issue, but also other shortcomings of the existing IPv4 protocol. In an ideal network, configuration would be simple, and wireless devices would continue transmitting and receiving while moving. This is where customer electronics products can really take advantage of IPv6.
 
The real drivers for IPv6, beside the restored reachability of end nodes, are the automatic configuration of devices and their mobility. Products using IPv6 auto-configuration are able to configure themselves automatically without user intervention. This makes the use of IP-based products much simpler and easier to deploy, greatly enhancing customer experience. There will be no need to be network-savvy or call a computer expert friend in order to set up your new IP-enabled refrigerator, thermostat, camera or TV – each device will connect on its own, configure itself and work right away.
 
Using Mobile IPv6 will allow consumer products using wireless technologies to stay connected all the time, even while they are moving. The difference compared to current technology, cell phones for example, is that the movement is independent of the provider and the media (GSM, wireless, wired, etc). This means, for example, that a videoconference session through a cellular connection while walking on the street can be switched to a home wireless link without any interruption.
 
In order for consumer electronics devices to take full advantage of IPv6, most home and enterprise networks will need to be IPv6 enabled as will the broadband connections servicing them.
 
This is where coexistence technologies such as Hexago TSP™ (www.hexago.com) will help. Hexago enables IPv6 applications to be deployed in today’s IPv4 networks. Hexago’s unique technology brings the IPv6 advantages of easy configuration, mobility and reachability into current devices and networks. These devices are fully able to communicate together and on the Internet while reaping all the benefits from IPv6 right now.
 
Hexago’s clients who use IPv6 for customer electronics definitely see an improvement in the ease of use of their products, as well as a whole new range of possible features.
 
The beauty of IP is that it is a flexible platform on which one can easily build any networked application imaginable. Unfortunately, the current Internet has evolved in a way that limits this flexibility. By using IPv6 today, the potential of networked services can be accelerated to new heights of usability, performance and cost effectiveness.