The IPv6 Forum and some of its members today announced the successful completion of VoIP calls using IP version 6 (IPv6), demonstrating worldwide interoperability among VoIP technologies. IPv6 is the next generation of Internet technology, designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force to replace the current IPv4.

The VoIP calls connected Viagenie, a Canadian consulting and R&D firm in the advanced IP networking arena, with Consulintel, a Spanish consulting group specializing in IPv6. The calls were made using a CounterPath eyebeam softphone through the IPv6 version of Asterisk, the open-source IP-PBX software that runs under Linux, using an Asterisk-IPv6 server located on Stealth Communications’ Voice Peering Fabric network.

Using IPv6 to do VoIP calls eliminates the need to do NAT--network address translation--traversal to complete a VoIP call end-to-end. NAT traversal has been a thorny problem for the VoIP industry.

“Asterisk-IPv6 shows the power of VoIPv6 by avoiding all issues regarding NAT traversal when using IPv4,” said Marc Blanchet, president of Viagenie, in a prepared statement. “The presence of NAT for VoIPv4 results in user issues, such as non-connecting calls, one-way audio and non-working DTMF. Asterisk-IPv6 solves all these issues and also brings, together with IPv6, true IP mobility, security and auto-configuration of VoIPv6 phones.”

Carrying out the VoIP calls on a live network is “another major milestone to demonstrating true end-to-end services,” said Latif Ladid, IPv6 Forum President, also in a prepared statement.

Using IPv6 in a Voice Peering Fabric also will enable VoIP providers to route calls without traversing the public Internet.

"The Voice Peering Fabric ENUM Registry and SRV Registry are fully IPv6 enabled,” said Shrihari Pandit, president and CEO of Stealth. “These registries map telephone numbers to Internet addresses, enabling companies globally to route VoIP phone calls among one another in a peer-to-peer fashion without touching the public telephony networks. VPF is a distributed Ethernet network that functions as an exchange or meet-point for organizations around the world, carrying over one-hundred billion minutes annually.”