6connect Makes Obtaining IP Addresses Easier

One thing that’s been cumbersome for service providers when obtaining new Internet Protocol (IP) addresses is the process of sending email requests to the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).

With the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 happening, a vendor – 6connect – has created technology to make the request for IP addresses and the registering of those addresses more automated.

6connect’s software has been integrated into the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), and the company is in the process of integrating its platform into the Réseaux IP Européens (RIPE), the European Internet registry. For 2012, 6connect is on track to complete integration with all five RIRs, including AfriNIC for Africa; APNIC for Asia, Australia and New Zealand; and LACNIC for Latin America.

Richard Donaldson, 6connect’s chief executive officer and co-founder, said until now, requests for IP addresses had to be made though an email template. Once a service provider received and allocated the addresses, it had to register them back to the Internet registry with certain information. The process involved a lot of manual typing with room for human error.

6connect’s software leverages an API, created by the regional Internet registries, to permit real-time access to IP addresses, tapping directly into the RIRs’ databases. "It allows us to communicate directly with that database and when actually registering that IP address, we’re populating a database. We’ve mitigated the slower more administrative heavy tasks of emailing back and forth," said Donaldson.

“Leveraging the APIs published by global RIRs saves IP administrators, our clients, days and sometimes weeks of troubleshooting and manually processing both requests and registrations of IP addresses,” said Pete Sclafani, CIO and co-founder of 6connect, in a statement.

Cable companies have been on the leading edge of the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Comcast recently announced it had approximately 1,000 customers running on IPv6 with pilot deployments in Pleasanton, Calif., and in Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

-Linda Hardesty