Case Study: Wind River

Wind River sails into IPv6 marketability with UNH-IOL ‘IPv6 Ready’ logo testing

The Challenge: Prove IPv6 Compatibility to the Marketplace

Wind River’s Device Software Optimization software platforms provide the digital backbone in devices found anywhere from a backseat DVD player to a Boeing 787. Wind River’s customers needed assurance that its products would interoperate flawlessly in networks utilizing Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), the newest version of the underlying code that runs most of the world’s networks.

With IPv6 development ongoing, Wind River turned to the “IPv6 Ready Logo” testing program spear-headed by the IPv6 Forum and administered in North America by the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL).

Wind River had long anticipated that its customers in its various markets would have a need for IPv6. The company introduced an IPv6 software stack in 2002. “Our customers have a need for it, and the functionality has to be there,” said Vellesh Narayanan, Wind River’s senor networking product manager. Narayanan said third-party validation of functionality and interoperability is key for Wind River’s leadership in new technologies. The IPv6 Ready Logo Program offered Wind River unimpeachable proof of its implementation’s effectiveness.

“A lot of difficulties and hesitation simply go away the minute we tell our customers we have done the interoperability testing at UNH,” said Narayanan.

The Solution: UNH-IOL and the IPv6 Ready Logo Program

Wind River had worked for more than three years with the UNH lab in Durham, New Hampshire on refining its IPv6 network stack. It was a natural step to enroll the Wind River Network Stack in UNH-IOL’s rigorous body of IPv6 tests as approved by the IPv6 Forum and administered through the lab’s IPv6 Testing Services. Wind River could rely with confidence on the lab’s position of leadership in IPv6 testing.

“UNH-IOL is a well-recognized third-party lab that our customers know and that warranted our confidence as well,” said Narayanan. “Moreover, UNH was leading in its effort on IPv6. That made it an easy choice.”

Engineers expertly trained in IPv6 protocol testing put the Wind River stack through a rigorous battery of objective trials and test scripts. Wind River’s operating system passed all of the test items in the program, qualifying Wind River to display a gold IPv6 Ready logo.

The Results: IPv6-Ready Assurance and Third-Party Validation in the Marketplace

In addition to improving the Wind River Network Stack’s ability to perform as needed in real-world multi-vendor deployments, achieving the logo provided the all-important third-party IPv6 validation for Wind River’s customers.

Having earned the gold IPv6 Ready logo, Wind River assures its customers that devices running its software will perform optimally in complex, mixed networks today and for years to come. The same UNH-IOL engineers who worked with Wind River were heavily involved in defining the international requirements for the IPv6 Ready Logo Program.

Wind River has tested its product in one of the largest multi-vendor IPv6 test beds in North America, undertaken above-and-beyond quality assurance testing, and in the process shaved weeks if not months from its time to market, saving the corresponding engineering costs.

“Working with UNH enabled us to get the IPv6 Phase I and II logo's faster and helped us with market recognition,” Narayanan said. “It improved our interoperability and quality, and provided us with third-party quality validation. We plan to use UNH for all our IPv6 interoperability testing.”