Smart networking

Researchers at

,

and the Swedish Institute of Computer Science (

) have developed a small open-source, IPv6-ready protocol stack, which could enable every device, no matter how limited by power or memory, to have an Internet Protocol address.

'The uIPv6 stack has the potential to impact a wide range of markets where automation is key, just as voice over IP did in telephony,' said Rob Adams, senior director of Cisco's Corporate Development technology group.

'Smart' devices powered by sensors and actuators could help transmit information over networks to locations where the information can then be analysed, correlated with other data and acted upon. But the proliferation of systems based on the idea has been restricted by the cost associated with ensuring that all the devices in such systems are interoperable.

The use of IP as a networking technology to solve this interoperability issue has been widely recognised, and now, thanks to its lower-layer energy management mechanisms and limited memory capacity, the uIPv6 can be deployed as one potential solution.