The LXI Consortium Announces Adoption of Its IPv6 Extended Function

NIWOT, CO--(Marketwire - Jul 18, 2012) - The LXI Consortium, today announced the adoption of its Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) Extended Function that ensures that LXI vendors approach IPv6 in a consistent way before its widespread use in test systems occurs, and that LXI products can comply with government requirements for IPv6 readiness.

With the rapid growth of devices connected to the Internet, the number of unallocated Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) addresses has been depleted. In anticipation of this eventuality, IPv6 was created to ensure the world could continue to add Internet connected devices. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, providing more than 340 trillion additional IP addresses compared to about 4 billion previously offered by 32-bit IPv4 addresses. IPv6 is the long-term successor to IPv4 that offers the potential to build a much larger Internet and promises to allow unlimited addresses worldwide use for many years to come.

LXI is the standard for Ethernet control of instrumentation. LXI simplifies the use of Ethernet for test systems, providing a low-cost, cross platform, computer interface that can be controlled at any distance.

The LXI Consortium wanted to ensure a consistent approach towards the support of IPv6 among LXI vendor companies and has adopted its IPv6 Extended Function. In order to ease implementation the LXI Consortium is defining the minimum subset of IPv6 features that need to be implemented in LXI IPv6 compliant devices.

Even though IPv4 addresses are virtually exhausted at this point, in practical terms, Steve Schink, Marketing Planner at Agilent Technologies and President of the LXI Consortium, suggests that the need for migration to IPv6 support by LXI products will be more gradual. "Most LAN-based instruments are used only on a local subnet, which can continue to use and re-use the local DHCP-supplied IPv4 addresses for instruments. When subnets become IPv6-only, or when instrument connections must be made over the WAN, IPv6 becomes more important," said Schink. "With the IPv6 Extended Function, the LXI Consortium is providing guidelines for test & measurement companies with LXI products to transition to IPv6," Schink added.

For more information regarding the LXI Consortium or the support of IPv6 by LXI products, please visit:
http://www.lxistandard.org

About LXI Consortium
The LXI Consortium, www.lxistandard.org, is an industry consortium that maintains the LXI specification, promotes the LXI Standard, and ensures interoperability.

With more than 53 of the top T&M companies sponsoring and developing this technology, and more than 1740 products in over 220 different product families, LXI (LAN eXtensions for Instrumentation) is the current and future standard for test & measurement (T&M).

LXI is the fastest ramp-up of any communications standard in the history of the test industry and products from leading test and measurement companies.