Facilitating content accessibility via different communication formats

1. A method comprising:

causing client requests for web page content published by a content publisher in Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) format and hosted by an IPv4 server to be directed or redirected to a traffic management node by configuring a first domain name of the content publisher to point to a second domain name associated with the traffic management node via a canonical name (CNAME) record of a domain name system (DNS);

receiving, by the traffic management node, a request for the web page content from a client that has been directed or redirected to the traffic management node as a result of said configuring;

determining, by the traffic management node, communication capabilities of the client based on an ability of the client to access a set of test content, wherein the communication capabilities include IPv4 enabled, IPv6 enabled and dual stack; and

based on the determined communication capabilities and a traffic management policy specified by the content publisher, directing, by the traffic management node, the request to an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) proxy server or the IPv4 server, wherein the IPv6 proxy server hosts the web page content in IPv6 format, wherein the web page content was obtained by the IPv6 proxy server from the IPv4 server and translated from the IPv4 format to the IPv6 format.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the web page content hosted by the IPv6 proxy server in IPv6 format was proactively translated from the IPv4 format to the IPv6 format prior to receiving any content requests for the web page content.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the traffic management policy specifies use of a communication format supported by the client that is expected to provide the client with superior performance.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising determining, by the traffic management node, whether the request has been tunneled.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein said determining, by the traffic management node, whether the request has been tunneled includes comparing a source Internet Protocol (IP) address of the request with a list of known IP addresses associated with tunneling services.

6. The method of claim 3 , wherein the client is natively connected to an IPv6 network and wherein the traffic management policy specifies use of the IPv6 format to avoid performance degradations inherent in tunneling communications over incompatible networks.

7. The method of claim 3 , wherein the client is natively connected solely to an IPv4 network and wherein the traffic management policy specifies use of the IPv6 format.

8. The method of claim 3 , wherein the client is dual stack and natively connected to both an IPv4 network and an IPv6 network.

9. A traffic management node comprising:

a non-transitory storage device having embodied therein one or more routines; and

one or more processors coupled to the non-transitory storage device and operable to execute the one or more routines to perform a method comprising:

receiving a request for web page content from a client that has been directed or redirected to the traffic management node as a result of a first domain name of a content publisher of the web page content to point to a second domain name associated with the traffic management node via a canonical name (CNAME) record of a domain name system (DNS), wherein the web page content has been published by the content publisher in Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) format and is hosted by an IPv4 server;

determining, by the traffic management node, communication capabilities of the client based on an ability of the client to access a set of test content, wherein the communication capabilities include IPv4 enabled, IPv6 enabled and dual stack; and

based on the determined communication capabilities and a traffic management policy specified by the content publisher, directing the request to an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) proxy server or the IPv4 server, wherein the IPv6 proxy server hosts the web page content in IPv6 format, wherein the web page content was obtained by the IPv6 proxy server from the IPv4 server and translated from the IPv4 format to the IPv6 format.

10. The traffic management node of claim 9 , wherein the traffic management policy specifies use of a communication format supported by the client that is expected to provide the client with superior performance.

11. The traffic management node of claim 10 , wherein the method further comprises determining whether the request has been tunneled.

12. The traffic management node of claim 11 , wherein said determining whether the request has been tunneled includes comparing a source Internet Protocol (IP) address of the request with a list of known IP addresses associated with tunneling services.

13. The traffic management node of claim 10 , wherein the client is natively connected to an IPv6 network and wherein the traffic management policy specifies use of the IPv6 format to avoid performance degradations inherent in tunneling communications over incompatible networks.

14. The traffic management node of claim 10 , wherein the client is natively connected solely to an IPv4 network and wherein the traffic management policy specifies use of the IPv6 format.

15. The traffic management node of claim 10 , wherein the client is dual stack and natively connected to both an IPv4 network and an IPv6 network.

16. The traffic management node of claim 10 , wherein the web page content hosted by the IPv6 proxy server in IPv6 format was proactively translated from the IPv4 format to the IPv6 format prior to receiving any content requests for the web page content.