Security firm Sourcefire, creator of the open source Snort security toolkit, has unveiled its 3D9800 Sensor network security appliance.

The IPv6-ready offering integrates intrusion prevention, network behaviour analysis, network access control and vulnerability assessment.

The 3D9800 Sensor is designed to meet the performance demands of 10Gbps Ethernet networks, and will provide support for the latest IPv6 deployments.

Sourcefire claims that the 3D9800 Sensor will provide protection of high-throughput core networks from one central location for large environments with significant amounts of network traffic.

The 3D9800 Sensor offers high port density with 12 cores dedicated to application processing and up to two network interface modules, as well as 10Gbps and 1Gbps network connectivity options.

Tom Ashoff, vice president of engineering at Sourcefire, said: "The 3D9800 Sensor is designed to provide customers with the ability to upgrade their networks without worrying about whether they are still protected."

With IPv6 packet analysis, Sourcefire 3D Sensors will allow users to prevent attacks in native and tunnelled IPv6 traffic.

Users will also be enable to stop evasions in IPv6 traffic and protect IPv6-enabled systems residing on IPv4 networks, as the US government prepares to meet the June 2008 deadline for upgrading network security products to IPv6.

The Sourcefire 3D9800 Sensor is expected to be available in the second half of 2007.