As the premier telecommunications infrastructure provider of network services, IP transport and colocation facilities in the Midwest, US Signal is committed to providing its customers with the latest networking innovations.

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) has, since 1981, served as the core communications protocol upon which the Internet is based. However, the explosive growth of the Internet, and sheer quantity of IP connected devices, has strained IPv4 to the point where the quantity of unique IPv4 addresses available for assignment is beginning to run low. Projections vary widely, but most industry experts predict that larger blocks of IPv4 addresses will be all allocated for use sometime between late 2011 and 2014. At that point, it will become increasingly difficult to acquire addresses for new IPv4 connected hosts. This does NOT mean the IPv4 internet will disappear. Rather, the growth of the internet will need to move towards newer technologies and protocols such as IPv6.


IPv6 has been standardized since 1999 and was designed to address many of IPv4?s limitations. The biggest limitation is the number of unique IP addresses. Whereas IPv4 can support about four billion IP addresses, IPv6 can accommodate literally trillions of IP addresses and will provide room for growth of the Internet for the foreseeable future. It is important to keep in mind that IPv4 and IPv6 will coexist for many years.


As an Internet service provider, and as a provider of advanced IP and MPLS services, US Signal recognizes the need to transition to IPv6. At the same time, we are also committed to maintaining a robust network for our customers and partners. Any US Signal IPv6 implementation will be scalable, reliable, secure, feature rich, and fully supported by the US Signal Service Delivery and Network Operations Center (NOC).


US Signal will be offering native IPv6 access to new and existing customers starting in Q1 2012. This will allow customers to have either a dual-stack IPv4/IPv6 interface or a single IPv6 interface if IPv4 is not needed. Customers who have expressed interest in native IPv6 will be contacted as soon as it is available.


Later in CY12 we will offer an Advanced IPv6 product that will offer an assortment of IPv4/IPv6 integration services to make it easier for customers during the transitional period as more of the Internet services they utilize become available via IPv6.


Please visit this web page periodically for the latest transition updates.
IPv6 FAQsClick here to view Frequently Asked Questions
What is IPv6 and what is the timeline customers should be aware of?
IPv6 was developed in the 1990’s when people saw that IPv4, only having 32 bits of address space, had the potential to run out of addresses. IPv6 gives 128 bits of address space which is vastly larger than IPv4.
Will there be an additional fee for IPv6?
US Signal will offer 2 products, Basic and Advanced. Basic is dual staffed, meaning IPv6 and IPv4 will be running at the same time on the same physiological circuit. Basic service will be included with existing DIA service. The Advanced product will be able to offer some interoperability features between v4 and v6 that will allow better migration to customers who might not be able or willing make the transition themselves. There will be a cost involved for this service. It will be deployed in a similar fashion as our Cloud Base Managed Firewall using NAT64 which allows for a v6 only host to talk to a v4 only host during the transition.
Can we have private IPv6 addresses for internal hosts?
With IPv6 there is really no equivalent to the IPv4 Private Address space (RFC 1918). There is the Link Local address space (fe80::/10) which can only be used within a single site or subnet but cannot be routed between WAN sites. A block that can be used to route between internal WAN sites is Unique Local Address (ULA) which is the block fc00::/7. It is defined in RFC 4193 and it is an public IP block that is intended to be unique for all practical purposes by starting with fc00::/8 and setting the last 40 bits to a randomly generated string.
Will IPv6 support customers who have an existing IPv4 address range and don’t want or need to convert to IPv6 internally?
Our Advanced product will include IPv6 integration technologies to make the transition as easy as possible for customers not running IPv6 internally.
What impact will IPv6 have on customers using US Signal managed firewall services that filter ICMP under IPV4 but is required under IPv6?  Will those changes be done as part of the managed service?
It will be easy for them to migrate to either basic or advanced since it is deployed on a similar infrastructure as the Managed Firewall. Since IPv6 does require several functions of IPv6 ICMP in order to correctly operate, we will support all of those components and will allow other ICMP functions based on need and security.
What happened to IPv5 – why is there no 5?
IPv5 was an assigned version number, but it was assigned to internet stream protocol – which is something that was never really used.
For those of us that are multi-homed: will it be required that we use the Advanced IPv6 product?
When multi-homing with IPv6, if you do not obtain a direct allocation from ARIN you would receive separate IPv6 blocks from all your providers and then multi-home your equipment/servers with all of those blocks.
Can I take my IPv6 addresses with me if I change from one ISP to another?
Just like with IPv4, in order to have provider independent addresses you need to obtain them from ARIN. If it is a US Signal-assigned address, it has to be returned at the termination of your service from US Signal.
Will this be a seamless transition, or will there be downtime?
There will be no US Signal initiated down-time associated with the transition to Basic IPv6. There will most likely some downtime associated with converting to the Advanced product, as it would require moving some logical components around for the customer, but it would be minimal.
Would a Basic customer with an IPv4 address be able to access an IPv6 resource on the Internet, and vice versa for an IPv6 customer to an IPv4 destination?
IPv6/IPv4 Interoperability is solved by an “Advanced” IPv6 product.
Will your initial IPv6 product have Global reach, ie: are you purchasing IPv6 transit from enough providers to not suffer from the current fractioning that exists?
Yes, we are going to be purchasing multiple IPv6 feeds from our existing IPv4 transit providers, as well as some dedicated IPv6 feeds.  Until the IPv6 internet reaches a much higher level of interconnection, providers will have to continually evaluate and address issues stemming from the disparate nature of the IPv6 internet.
Will USS current customers receive an equal amount of IPv6 addresses as they are using now w/ IPv4?
There is not a one-to-one comparison between the two.  The smallest block you would receive under our IPv6 products would be a /56 (4,000 billion addresses).  This amount will be allocated by default; however most customers will only use a small fraction of that.
Why has the transition to IPv6 taken so long, and why haven’t we been forced to do this earlier?
There have been things such as NAT that have prolonged the usability of IPv4. From a user perspective, there hasn’t been a lot of IPv6 content that they would want. From a provider perspective there is motivation because IPv4 space is running out and they will need to space to continue to offer services.
What is the most compelling reason for a company to expend energy in migrating to IPv6 at this time?  Being that the Internet is a critical infrastructure, is the government providing any incentives to migrate?
Although the government is aware of the importance of IPv6 (and in fact require IPv6 support on any government networking projects), we are not aware of any incentives for migrating.  The most compelling reason will be the push from providers as they run out of space on IPv4.  Many companies are already using IPv6 internally without knowing it. Current versions of Microsoft Windows products (Windows 7 and Server 2008) enable IPv6 by default and prefer it when it is available.
Will IPv4/IPv6 NAT be able to handle enough people hosting games and such at their homes (a “stateful NAT”)?
That is definitely a consideration.  No one provider has a stateful IPv4 to IPv6 , carrier-grade NAT solution currently.  IPv6 integration products will have as robust a solution as possible.  We are working with as many of the vendors as possible to come up with the best solution.
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IPv6 Statement