LIS 525 - Internet Future
Problems with IP Version 4
- Address space.
32-bit addresses give at most 232,
or a little more than 4 billion,
distinct addresses.
Moreover, the pool is not divided effectively.
So, there will not be enough distinct addresses for computers,
let alone other devices, including "smart" appliances.
- Security.
Encryption is not built in.
- Quality of service.
Packets may be lost;
packets cannot be assigned priorities.
IP Version 6
IP version 6,
sometimes called IPng (IP next generation),
was designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force
to allow the Internet to grow steadily,
in terms of both the number of hosts
and the total amount of data traffic.
- Addresses.
IPv6 assigns 128 bits for an address;
hence there will be up to 2128 distinct addresses.
The first 48 bits identify the site;
the next 16 bits allow the site to define its own topology;
and the last 64 bits identify the specific host.
- Security.
IPv6 adds two new kinds of header:
the IPng Authentication Header and
the IPng Encapsulating Security Header.
- Quality of service.
The 24-bit Flow Label and the 4-bit Priority fields
will be used by a host to identify those packets
for which it requests special handling.
This is important for applications
which require some degree of consistent throughput or delay
("multi-media" or "real-time" applications).
The 4-bit Priority field in the IPv6 header
enables a source to identify the desired delivery priority of
its packets,
relative to other packets from the same source.
The Priority values are divided into two ranges:
0 through 7, for traffic
that can be delayed in response to congestion;
8 through 15, for traffic
that should not be delayed in response to congestion.
The following allocations are recommended:
- 0 Uncharacterized traffic
- 1 "Filler" traffic (e.g., netnews)
- 2 Unattended data transfer (e.g., email)
- 3 (Reserved)
- 4 Attended bulk transfer (e.g., FTP, HTTP, NFS)
- 5 (Reserved)
- 6 Interactive traffic (e.g., telnet, X)
- 7 Internet control traffic (e.g., routing protocols, SNMP)
- 8-15 with lowest values
for packets that the sender is most willing to have discarded
(e.g., high-fidelity video traffic),
and highest for packets that the sender is least willing to have
discarded
(e.g., low-fidelity audio traffic).
Linux version 2.2 and above
comes with an IPv6 implementation built in.
There are patches available to add IPv6 capabilities
to Apache.
Windows 2000 did not ship with a built in IPv6 implementation,
but Microsoft has an add-on for Windows 2000 available for
developer use.
IPv6 software is shipped with Windows XP,
though it has to be installed explicitly,
is not intended for production use,
and is not supported by Microsoft.
To test if you have IPv6 installed on a Windows XP machine,
you can try typing the following at the command-line prompt:
ping6 ::1
For more details,
look for the Windows help file ipv6.chm.
IPv6 is installed and enabled by default in Windows Vista,
but there are some "issues".
ARIN, APNIC, LACNIC, and RIPE all now accept requests
for blocks of numbers for IPv6.
Adoption of IPv6 has been slow,
partly because alternative technologies,
such as Network Address Translation (NAT),
have been used to extend IPv4's address space.
Internet 2
Internet2 (I2) is a not-for-profit consortium
aimed at developing advanced Internet technology and
applications
for research and higher education,
working in parallel with the Next Generation Internet (NGI)
project
of the U.S. government.
It represents over 300 member institutions, including universities,
corporations, government agencies, and not-for-profits.
Intended applications include
telemedicine, digital libraries and virtual laboratories.
It is not a single separate network,
but joins member efforts together.
I2 is helping to develop and test new technologies,
such as IPv6.
Funding comes from I2 member universities,
corporate members,
grants from NSF and other federal agencies
and from industry.
The associated Abilene backbone network
(a partnership of Internet2, Qwest Communications, Nortel Networks,
Juniper Networks, and Indiana University)
was upgraded to 10 Gbps
in early 2004.
In Canada, Canarie is handling development of
advanced national optical networks
that interconnect some universities, research centres,
and other eligible sites,
both with each other and with international networks.
CA*net 3 was deployed in 1998.
CA*net 4, deployed in 2002,
mostly provides connections at OC-192 (10 Gbps).
The University of Western Ontario
is connected to the Toronto node of CA*net 4.
Web 2.0
Not really a technical term,
often denounced as a mere buzz-phrase,
and registered in the U.S. as a trademark
for "Arranging and conducting live events",
this tag has recently been applied to newer developments on the Web,
especially the exploitation of more powerful versions of JavaScript
and cooperative efforts like Wikipedia.
For More Information
- Canarie Inc. 2007.
Welcome to CANARIE Inc..
http://www.canarie.ca/about/index.html.
(Website of I2's international partner in Canada.)
- Graham, P. 2005.
Web 2.0.
http://www.paulgraham.com/paulgraham/web20.html.
(A discussion of what Web 2.0 might mean.)
- Gross, G. 2005.
"Survey: Little U.S. interest in next-generation Internet".
Computerworld.
http://www.computerworld.com/developmenttopics/websitemgmt/story/0,10801,102008,00.html?source=x10.
- Hinden, R. 2003.
IP Version 6 (IPv6).
http://playground.sun.com/pub/ipng/html/ipng-main.html.
(Annotated pointers to other pages on IPv6.)
- HowStuffWorks. 2007.
Howstuffworks "How Network Address Translation Works".
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/nat.htm.
(A detailed explanation of various forms of NAT.)
- Internet2. 2007.
Internet2.
http://www.internet2.edu/.
- IPv6. 2003.
IPv6: The Next Generation Internet!.
http://www.ipv6.org/.
(Includes links to information on IPv6 support
by various platforms.)
- Kerner, S.M. 2005.
Could a U.S. Shift to IPv6 Cost $75B?
http://www.internetnews.com/infra/article.php/3570211.
(The OMB mandated in August 2005
that the U.S. government move to IPv6 by June 2008,
but there are problems.)
- Marsan, C.D. 2007.
"Vista not playing well with IPv6".
Network World.
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/060707-microsoft-vista-ipv6-incompatible.html.
- Microsoft Corporation. 2007.
Microsoft Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6).
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/itsolutions/network/ipv6/default.mspx.
(Information on IPv6 in various versions of Windows.)
- Morgenstern, D. 2006.
"IPv6 Still Gets No Respect in the United States".
eWeek.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1977463,00.asp.
- Pappalardo, D. 2006.
"Internet2's network to get a facelift".
Computer World.
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;102071774.
- van Beijnum, I. 2007.
Everything you need to know about IPv6.
http://arstechnica.com/articles/paedia/ipv6.ars.
(Fairly detailed article, including some information on NAT.)
Home
Last updated October 12, 2007.
This page maintained by
Prof. Tim Craven
E-mail (text/plain only): craven@uwo.ca
Faculty of Information and
Media Studies
University of Western
Ontario,
London, Ontario
Canada, N6A 5B7