メニュー

Japanese

  1. Top > 
  2. Press Release > 
  3. 2004 > 
  4. JP Domain Name Starts the World's First Full Support for IPv6 as TLD - A landscape advance in IPv6 addressing environment in Japan -

Press Release: 2004

Press Release

July 21, 2004
Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd.(JPRS)

JP Domain Name Starts the World's First Full Support for IPv6 as TLD - A landscape advance in IPv6 addressing environment in Japan -

Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd., (JPRS: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President Koki Higashida), the company responsible for management and administration of .JP top-level domain and overall management and operation of the JP domain name system (JP DNS) today announced that IPv6 addresses of .jp domain name servers (JP DNS servers) were registered in IANA root servers and became accessible with IPv6. This makes .jp domain, aligning with .kr (Korea), the world's first Top Level Domain fully supports for IPv6 technology. Also it expands the environment where .jp domain devices with IPv6 addresses are accessible with IPv6 setting - a great stride forward in its development of the Internet community in Japan.

JP domain had been conducting the IPv6 address registration service in its .jp name servers since March in 2000. That is, allocating IPv6 addresses for devices and registering them as records in JP DNS to make those devices accessible with IPv6. On top of that, in order to make the name servers managing JP DNS accessible through IPv6, in August 2001, JPRS started to allocate IPv6 addresses to the name servers and in November 2002 applied to IANA for registration of those addresses on IANA root servers. On July 20th (PST), 2004, the IANA's verification process finally completed and IPv6 addresses allocated for the four JP DNS name servers were formally registered in the whole Internet space. Consequently, other than root servers, all the name servers of JP domain became accessible with IPv6 technology.

In Japan, the use of IPv6 addresses so far had been expanding with JPRS's IPv6 address registration service and accessibility of JP DNS servers through IPv6. However, in order to upgrade the move into the international stage, two challenges were left to be solved. Firstly, registering IPv6 addresses allocated to name servers in each TLD (such as .jp) in IANA's root servers. Secondly, allocating IPv6 addresses to root servers themselves. JPRS's achievement this time means the above first challenge has beensolved.

As root servers work as cornerstones of the whole domain name system, the core of the Internet infrastructure, changes on them might risk stability and reliability of the whole network. Therefore, JPRS, in cooperation with Internet research organizations worldwide including WIDE Project in Japan, has executed logical verification and experiment on the impacts brought by registering IPv6 addresses of TLD name severs into root servers and making them accessible.

From those processes along with its own elaborations, IANA established technical requirements and procedures to realise stable IPv6 environment, resulting .jp and .kr. be the first TLDs in the world that are accessible with IPv6 technology.

To solve the last and biggest challenge for the fully IPv6-based Internet,"making root servers accessible with IPv6," JPRS is enhancing its cooperative relationship with Internet communities. At the same time, JPRS will make extensive effort on our joint research on measurement of next generation Internet diffusion with Intec NetCore. Through these activities to promote IPv6 environment, JPRS continues to commit itself to improve .jp domain names and contribute to develop next generation Internet.


IPv6
IPv6 is the abbreviation of Internet Protocol Version 6. IPv4 is commonly used now, and its next version is IPv6. Every computer connected to IP network requires unique IP address for identification. However, the number of IPv4 address is limited, and there is a growing shortage of IPv4 addresses. IPv6 provides a much larger global addresses space, and is expected to be used to control household appliance and automobiles with improved security and other capabilities of the network itself.

Root Server
A group of name servers managing "root zone," the top of layered structure of DNS. Root Servers support basis of Internet infrastructure, as they provide core information regarding DNS. Root servers have 13 host names(a~m.root-servers.net), however in reality, several root servers are operated under one host name through multiplexing devices and IP Anycast technology. Currently, various technologies are used to improve performance and stability of IANA function.

About JPRS
JPRS was incorporated on December 26, 2000 to carry out responsibility of the management and administration of the .JP top-level domain and to operate the domain name system. As a company dedicated to maintaining the Internet infrastructure, Japan Registry Services (JPRS) contributes to the development of the Internet and the building of a better future for everyone.

Reference
JPRS Press Release of May 26th, 2003
"Intec NetCore and JPRS Start Joint Measurement of Next Generation Internet Diffusion" http://jprs.co.jp/en/topics/030529.html


For inquiries, contact:

JPRS/President's Office Public Relations
E-mail: press@jprs.co.jp
URL: http://jprs.co.jp/en/

PAGE TOP