Complete IPv6 Deployment Across The World

IPv6 Deployment Across The World Introduction As a first step towards deploying IPv6 (that will co-exist with IPv4) across the Globe, the IPv6 Forum was formed in July 1999. Its common mission is to educate Internet users on the advantages of the IPv6 protocol, and to promote and implement the worldwide deployment of this protocol. It has an impressive membership list comprising of manufacturers, leading Telecom operators, Internet service providers, and vendors of Internet solutions, Consulting companies, R&D institutions and many others.   The current status of deployment of IPv6 in different parts of the world is very encouraging and gives an idea of what the future holds for the Internet in the coming years. USA The US Government had issued a mandate to all vendors both civilian & defense - to make the switch to an IPv6 platform by summer of 2008. This move boosted deployment of IPv6 in coming years. The General Services Administration in 2007 had awarded over $150 billion worth of contracts, which was close to the total amount spent on the Y2K upgrade.   A small percentage of the live addresses In the Internet were even supported by IPv6 as early as in December 2005. Canada Viaginie of Canada, a consulting and research and development firm specializing in advanced computer networking technologies has developed a tunnel server, the freenet6.net to allow any IPv4 node to be connected to the 6Bone. International connectivity of IPv6 has been achieved with US and other countries through native IPv6 and over IPv4 tunnels. The following information is useful, as far as IPv6 availability is concerned: 1)Quake IPv6 is now available at quake.ipv6.viagenie.qc.ca 2)DNS root server IPv6 accepts DNS requests by IPv6. 3)NTP over IPv6 provides a NTP service to the community Japan   IPv6 deployment in Japan enjoys strong government support   (Japan Gigabit Network) JGN- IPv6 over ATM and Native IPv6 transport (not tunnel)   Major ISPs, and even start ups and rural ISPs have started services   IIJ launched the first IPv6 service (tunnel) in 1998 and has more than 100 customers   NTT Communications launched the first commercial IPv6 service in 2001, started DUAL services for ADSL users and a world-wide transport service   Backbone and IX providers (NSPIXP6, JPIX) have started functioning   Major router vendors (Hitachi, Fujitsu, NEC, Furukawa Electric, Yamaha etc) are 'v6-ready'   Major terminal vendors in home appliances, sensors, web cameras, etc., have started trials   Service providers like Powered Com, Japan Telecom, KDDI have started trials in areas like mobile phones, online gaming, Internet Car/Train, medical China The Chinese government has initiated the China's Next Generation Internet project (CNGI), which is a five-year plan with the objective of cornering a significant proportion of the Internet space by implementing IPv6 early. The United States accounts for almost a third of the maximum possible IPv4 addresses (about 4.2 billion), while China has more high-speed Internet users than it does IP addresses. China plans to put on display the new IPv6 deployment during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Everything from the security cameras to vehicles and the coverage of the Olympic events will be done via IPv6, and there will be live streaming of the events over the Internet. France   The IPv6 Task Force was created in France on September 25th 2002. The deployment of IPv6 has been done in a phased manner with the active involvement of France Telecom, the leading Telecom operator in the country. 1998 heralded the deployment of an IPv6 native network internal to FT R&D Division (RIMBAUD) connecting the 5 R&D centres nationwide and connected to the 6Bone, and in the year 2000, France Telecom was assigned a sub-TLA prefix (2001: 0688::/32) The following events mark the evolution of IPv6 deployment in France:   Migration of France Telecom's IPv6/WDM nationwide experimental VTHD Network from tunnelling to full Dual-Tack between 2001 to 2003, marked by the first European WLAN Mobile IPv6 Campus in collaboration with Strasbourg University 2001, and testing of multimedia and standard IPv6applications.   Deployment of OpenTransitv6 (Asia, US, Europe), a native IPv6 international commercial network in 2002   IPv6 migration of FT s Commercial IP word wide network (OpenTransit) in 2005: 50 POPs worldwide are Dual Stack since June 2005 and launch of a nationwide IPv6 broadband access experiment to FT s Internet users in June 2005. IPv6 connectivity is based on Teredo, Tunnel Broker and ADSLv6)+   As of December 30th, 2005, FT was assigned a larger IPv6 prefix (/19) Korea KOREAv6, composed with IPv6 Trial Services and Field Test for IPv6 Equipments is the IPv6 Pilot Project launched in Korea, and its key objectives are: To create IPv6-ready businesses in the public & private sector To speed up the commercialisation of IPv6 equipments To promote public awareness about the IPv6  The implementation has been in a phased manner:   Phase I (2004) Constructing the nation-wide IPv6 trial network Providing VoDv6, VoIPv6, IPv6 Internet gateway service and Testing 39 IPv6 equipment such as routers, switches, VPN etc. Phase II (2005) Applying IPv6 technologies to the 8 services of IT839 such as WiBro, VoIP, and Home network Expanding IPv6 network to the public sector Transition of existing IPv4 portal sites and applications into IPv6 based ones Phase III (2006) Providing large-scale All-IPv6 services such as VoIPv6 to users as far as possible for the 8 services of IT 839 Supporting the commercialisation of IPv6 WiBro contents and applications Facilitating the massive use of IPv6 Internet services in the public sector The government of Korea plans to achieve complete IPv6 Transition in Public Sector and 10M IPv6 users by 2010: total IPv6 Transition in Backbone network by 2010 and in access network by 2013 for ISP.

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What is Animated gif?

What is animted GIF for internet

A type of GIF image that can be animated by combining several images into a single GIF file. Applications that support the animated GIF standard, GIF89A, cycle through each image. GIF animation doesn't give the same level of control and flexibility as other animation formats but it has become extremely popular because it is supported by nearly all Web browsers. In addition, animated GIF files tend to be quite a bit smaller that other animation files, such as Java applets

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IPv6 Vs IPv4

What is the difference between IPv6 & IPv4

Migrating to a 128 bit Address  Space

What is Internet Protocol (IP)?

IP (short for Internet Protocol) specifies the technical format of packets and the addressing scheme for computers to communicate over a network. Most networks combine IP with a higher-level protocol called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which establishes a virtual connection between a destination and a source.

IP by itself can be compared to the postal system. It allows to address a package and drop it in the system, but there's no direct link between sender and the recipient. TCP/IP, on the other hand, establishes a connection between two hosts so that they can send messages back and forth for a period of time.

Internet Protocol Versions

There are currently two version of Internet Protocol: IPv4 and a new version called IPv6. IPv6 is an evolutionary upgrade to the IP. IPv6 will coexist with the older IPv4 for some time.

What is IPv4 -- Internet Protocol Version 4?

IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) is the fourth revision of the Internet Protocol (IP) used to to identify devices on a network through an addressing system. The Internet Protocol is designed for use in interconnected systems of packet-switched computer communication networks.

IPv4 is the most widely deployed Internet protocol used to connect devices to the Internet. IPv4 uses a 32-bit address scheme allowing for a total of 2^32 addresses (just over 4 billion addresses).  With the growth of the Internet it is expected that the number of unused IPv4 addresses will eventually run out because every device -- including computers, smartphones and game consoles -- that connects to the Internet requires an address.

A new Internet addressing system Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is being deployed to fulfill the need for more Internet addresses.

What is IPv6 -- Internet Protocol Version 6?

IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) is also called IPng (Internet Protocol next generation) and it is the newest version of the Internet Protocol (IP) reviewed in the IETF standards committees to replace the current version of IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4). 

IPv6 is the successor to Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). It was designed as an evolutionary upgrade to the Internet Protocol and will, in fact, coexist with the older IPv4 for some time. IPv6 is designed to allow the Internet to grow steadily, both in terms of the number of hosts connected and the total amount of data traffic transmitted.

IPv6 is often referred to as the "next generation" Internet standard and has been under development now since the mid-1990s. IPv6 was born out of concern that the demand for IP addresses would exceed the available supply.

While increasing the pool of addresses is one of the most often-talked about benefit of IPv6, there are other important technological changes in IPv6 that will improve the IP protocol:

- No more NAT (Network Address Translation)
- Auto-configuration
- No more private address collisions
- Better multicast routing
- Simpler header format
- Simplified, more efficient routing
- True quality of service (QoS), also called "flow labeling"
- Built-in authentication and privacy support
- Flexible options and extensions
- Easier administration (say good-bye to DHCP)

The Difference Between IPv6 and IPv4 IP Addresses

An IP address is binary numbers but can be stored as text for human readers.  For example, a 32-bit numeric address (IPv4) is written in decimal as four numbers separated by periods. Each number can be zero to 255. For example, 1.160.10.240 could be an IP address.

IPv6 addresses are 128-bit IP address written in hexadecimal and separated by colons. An example IPv6 address could be written like this: 3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf (see "What does an IPv6 address look like?")

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Learning About Mobile IPv6

What is Mobile IPv6 What is Mobile IPv6 ?  Mobile IPv6 is an IETF standard that has added the roaming capabilities of mobile nodes in IPv6 network. RFC 3775 has described this standard in detail. The major benefit of this standard is that the mobile nodes (as IPv6 nodes) change their point-of-attachment to the IPv6 Internet without changing their IP address.  This allows mobile devices to move from one network to another and still maintain existing connections. Although Mobile IPv6 is mainly targeted for mobile devices, it is equally applicable for wired environments. The need for Mobile IPv6 is necessary because the mobile nodes in fixed IPv6 network can t maintain the previously connected link (using the address assigned from the previously connected link) when changing location. To accomplish the need for mobility, connections to mobile IPv6 nodes are made (without user interaction) with a specific address that is always assigned to the mobile node, and through which the mobile node is always reachable. Mobile IPv6 is expected to be used in IP over WLAN, WiMAX or BWA. Definitions and IPv6 features that are needed by Mobile IPv6 Several terms and information are necessary to understand Mobile IPv6: A foreign link defines a link that is not the mobile node s home link. A Care-of address denotes an address that is used by the mobile node while it is attached to a foreign link. Whenever a mobile node moves from the home link to a foreign link, it is always (still) reachable by its home address, regardless of its location in IPv6 network. Home address signifies that the mobile node is logically connected to the home link. Also, the association of a home address with a care-of address for a mobile node is known as a binding. Home agent is a router (on the home link) that maintains registrations of mobile nodes that are away from home and their current addresses. A Correspondent node is an IPv6 (not necessarily Mobile IPv6 capable) node that communicates with a mobile node.   Mobile IPv6 uses the IPv6 features such as address auto-configuration, Neighbor discovery and extension header for its operation. It uses both types of auto-configuration such as stateless (Network prefix + interface ID) and stateful auto-configuration (DHCPv6). The neighbor discovery feature allows performing the following:   How each other s presence is discovered and how to find routers   How each other s link layer addresses are determined   How to maintain reachability information Extension headers provide routing headers for route optimization and destinations option header for mobile node originated diagrams. In addition, Mobile IPv6 also requires mobile nodes to carry out IPv6 decapsulation. Mobile IPv6 Operation When a mobile node is away from home, it sends information about its current location to the home agent. A node that wants to communicate with a mobile node uses the home address of the mobile node to send packets. The home agent intercepts these packets, and using a table, tunnels the packets to the mobile node's care-of address. Mobile IPv6 uses care-of address as source address in foreign links. Also, to support natural route optimization, the Correspondent node uses IPv6 routing header than the IP encapsulation. The following discussion makes Mobile IPv6 s understanding more clear by highlighting the benefit of Mobile IPv6 over mobile IPv4.     Route Optimization is a built-in feature for Mobile IPv6. In mobile IPv4, this feature was available via an optional set of extensions that was not supported by all nodes.   There is no requirement of foreign Agents in Mobile IPv6. As mentioned previously, Neighbour Discovery and Address Auto-configuration features enable mobile nodes to function in any location without the services of any special router in that location.    There is no ingress filtering problem in Mobile IPv6 (In Mobile IPv4 this happens because the correspondent node puts its home address as the source address of the packet). In Mobile IPv6, the correspondent node puts the care-of address as the source address and having a Home Address Destination option, allow the use of the care-of address to be transparent over the IP layer. Always On" Connectivity for Future Mobile Devices Whereas IPv6 allows the deployment of millions of always-on, IP enabled devices, each with its own unique IP address, Mobile IPv6 enables mobile terminals to maintain their IP connectivity as they move across several networks. The goal for Mobile IPv6 is to provide provides seamless mobility for next generation mobile services and applications and across several access technologies such as WCDMA, WLAN etc. Additionally, Mobile IPv6 provides route optimization techniques to reduce handoff latencies. Mobile IPv6 is a powerful enabler for the next generation of services such as peer-to-peer services, push services and Voice over IP (VoIP) which demand always-on global reachability and seamless mobility. Mobile IPv6, along with fast-handoffs and context transfer mechanisms will be essential for the large scale deployment of real-time services such as VoIP and broadcast services.

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Learn about IPv6 Addressing

What is IPv6 Addressing?

Introduction 

One of the main benefits of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) over previously used Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the large address-space that contains (addressing) information to route packets for the next generation Internet.

IPv6 supports 128-bit address space and can potentially support 2128 or 3.4W1038 unique IP addresses (as opposed to 32-bit address space of IPv4). With this large address-space scheme, IPv6 has the capability to provide unique addresses to each and every device or node attached to the Internet.

Why we need IPv6 Addressing 

An escalating demand for IP addresses acted as the driving force behind the development of the large address space offered by the IPv6. According to industry estimates, in the wireless domain, more than a billion mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDA), and other wireless devices will require Internet access, and each will need its own unique IP address.

The extended address length offered by IPv6 eliminates the need to use techniques such as network address translation to avoid running out of the available address space. IPv6 contains addressing and control information to route packets for the next generation Internet. 

Types of IPv6 Addresses 

IPv6 addresses are broadly classified into three categories:

1) Unicast addresses A Unicast address acts as an identifier for a single interface. An IPv6 packet sent to a Unicast address is delivered to the interface identified by that address.

2) Multicast addresses A Multicast address acts as an identifier for a group/set of interfaces that may belong to the different nodes. An IPv6 packet delivered to a Multicast address is delivered to the multiple interfaces. 

3) Anycast addresses Anycast addresses act as identifiers for a set of interfaces that may belong to the different nodes. An IPv6 packet destined for an Anycast address is delivered to one of the interfaces identified by the address.

IPv6 Address Notation 

IPv6 addresses are denoted by eight groups of hexadecimal quartets separated by colons in between them.

Following is an example of a valid IPv6 address: 2001:cdba:0000:0000:0000:0000:3267:9652 

Any four-digit group of zeroes within an IPv6 address may be reduced to a single zero or altogether omitted. Therefore, the following IPv6 addresses are similar and equally valid:

2001:cdba:0000:0000:0000:0000:3267:9652
2001:cdba:0:0:0:0:3267:9652
2001:cdba::3267:9652

The URL for the above address will be of the form:

http://[2001:cdba:0000:0000:0000:0000:3267:9652]/

Network Notation in IPv6

The IPv6 networks are denoted by Classless Inter Domain Routing (CIDR) notation. A network or subnet using the IPv6 protocol is denoted as a contiguous group of IPv6 addresses whose size must be a power of two. The initial bits of an IPv6 address (these are identical for all hosts in a network) form the network s prefix. The size of bits in a network prefix are separated with a / . For example, 2001:cdba:9abc:5678::/64 denotes the network address 2001:cdba:9abc:5678. This network comprises of addresses rearranging from 2001:cdba:9abc:5678:: up to 2001:cdba:9abc:5678:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff. In a similar fashion, a single host may be denoted as a network with a 128-bit prefix. In this way, IPv6 allows a network to comprise of a single host and above.

Special Addresses in IPv6

		::/96 The zero prefix denotes addresses that are compatible with the previously used IPv4 protocol.
		::/128 An IPv6 address with all zeroes in it is referred to as an unspecified address and is used for addressing purposes within a software.
		::1/128 This is called the loop back address and is used to refer to the local host. An application sending a packet to this address will get the packet back after it is looped back by the IPv6 stack. The local host address in the IPv4 was 127.0.0.1 .
		2001:db8::/32 This is a documentation prefix allowed in the IPv6. All the examples of IPv6 addresses should ideally use this prefix to indicate that it is an example.
		fec0::/10 This is a site-local prefix offered by IPv6. This address prefix signifies that the address is valid only within the local organization. Subsequently, the usage of this prefix has been discouraged by the RFC.
		fc00::/7 This is called the Unique Local Address (ULA). These addresses are routed only within a set of cooperating sites. These were introduced in the IPv6 to replace the site-local addresses. These addresses also provide a 40-bit pseudorandom number that reduces the risk of address conflicts.
		ff00::/8 This prefix is offered by IPv6 to denote the multicast addresses. Any address carrying this prefix is automatically understood to be a multicast address.
		fe80::/10 This is a link-local prefix offered by IPv6. This address prefix signifies that the address is valid only in the local physical link.

Reference: Please see RFC 1884 - IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture for more information. 

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