The North American IPv6 Summit is the largest annual IPv6 event in North America, designed to educate about IPv6 and the current state of IPv6 adoption. We were honored to receive industry recognition of the Cisco's IPv6 leadership and continued innovation with the Best of Show Award of Product and Service for the Cisco Wireless Controller.

As you read about earlier this summer, Wireless Release 8.0 added a cornucopia of features to our wireless offering, many of which are targeted specifically for upcoming technologies, including IPv6. Let's look back to see how far we've come:

Anticipating the growing demand of the next generation IP and eyeing the arrival of World IPv6 day, Cisco released the first support for IPv6 in its' Wireless LAN Controller (WLC) software version 7.0 in 2011. There has been a steady progression of feature support ever since. Client mobility appeared in version 7.2 a year later in time to celebrate the launch of IPv6 on the global Internet.Then came the release of 7.4 and it's support of First Hop Security tools, enabling organization's to go beyond the lab and deploy IPv6 in a safe, secure manner.

The FHS tools included standards based RA Guard, and Source Address Validation Improvement (SAVI). More and more customers began to deploy and demand new feature support. Cisco recognized how excessive multicast could impact WiFi performance and they responded in 7.6 with scalability tools like RA throttle and ND Multicast Suppression. These tools reduced the "chattiness" of the protocol over an 802.11 medium and preserved battery life for devices that attach to WiFi networks.

Today the Cisco Wireless Controller Software version 8.0 ships with full featured IPv6 support including the ability to manage the entire WiFi infrastructure from it's configured IPv6 address and the creation of the CAPWAP tunnel mechanism over IPv6 addressing. Allowing the Cisco to pioneer and lead the WiFi revolution over the next generation IP. The Cisco WLC solution if fully USGv6 and IPv6 logo certified. The solution is deployed in retail stores, mobile hot spots, media outlets, college campuses and many other locations worldwide.

Cisco will continue to innovate and deliver IPv6 features to this world-class product set over the coming years as we usher in the next generation of the Internet Protocol.

You can read more about Cisco's IPv6 innovations here:

• IPv6 Just Works: Cisco Live London Dual Stack Network
• My Cisco Live Milan IPv6 Firsts
• FOSDEM 2014: Cisco Powered World First