NeTS: Large: Collaborative Research: Exploring the Evolution of IPv6: Topology, Performance, and Traffic

可用的IPv4地址空间即将耗尽，最终促使网络运营商开始部署到IPv6。这种转变有两种可能的结果。IPv6可能会被广泛采用和接受，导致许多现有的测量和监控互联网的方法无效。在这种过渡情况下，与现有的、仪器设备不佳的基于IPv4的网络相比，人们对互联网的了解将更加匮乏，数据将更加稀缺。第二种可能性是IPv6停滞不前，过渡机制失败，或者性能下降。无论哪种情况，都需要对严格的大规模IPv6测量进行新的研究，以便为技术、业务和政策决策提供信息。在这个项目中，来自CAIDA和海军研究生院的研究人员从事测量和数据分析，探索IPv6部署的演变。首先，他们专注于根据需要提高IPv6测量技术的保真度、范围和可用性，以提供从核心到边缘的IPv6拓扑的全面视图。为了实现这一目标，研究人员正在构建新的工具，以衡量边缘采用IPv6的特征，并开发新的方法来比较IPv4和IPv6连接的特征。生成的数据集将作为下一项任务的输入：将这些观察到的数据与其他可用的技术和社会经济数据关联起来，例如地址分配、地理和流量数据、运营商组织结构以及可能影响IPv6部署的政治/监管因素。最后，CAIDA和NPS的研究人员将对IPv6性能进行定量评估，包括过渡技术和流量特征的影响。这项研究将通过收集有关转换器技术范围和有效性的严格经验数据，调查对IPv6性能和路径膨胀的普遍担忧，并分析美国主要主干上的实际IPv6流量工作负载，来改善IPv6过渡的定量建模状态。该项目的智力优势包括对互联网上尝试过的最困难的架构过渡有坚实的经验基础的理解，同时促进网络测量科学和技术的最先进水平。研究IPv6部署的严格方法是当前互联网的一个引人注目的案例研究，适用于其他领域的技术转让挑战。为了最大限度地发挥其更广泛的影响，这些成果将广泛传播到研究、商业和政府部门，为通信和技术政策提供信息。数据、工具和方法将可供研究人员使用，并用于为子孙后代创建可访问的教育材料，他们将比今天更依赖强大的互联网。

The impending exhaustion of available IPv4 address space is finally motivating network operators to begin deploying to IPv6. There are two possible outcomes from this transition. IPv6 may be widely adopted and embraced, causing many existing methods that measure and monitor the Internet to be ineffective. In this transition scenario, the Internet will be even less well understood, and data even more scarce, than the existing, poorly instrumented IPv4-based network. A second possibility is that IPv6 languishes, transition mechanisms fail, or performance suffers. Either scenario demands new research on rigorous large-scale IPv6 measurement to inform technical, business, and policy decisions.In this project, researchers from CAIDA and from the Naval Postgraduate School are engaged in measurements and data analysis exploring the evolution of IPv6 deployment. First, they are focusing on improving the fidelity, scope, and usability of IPv6 measurement technology as necessary for providing a comprehensive view of the IPv6 topology from core to edge. To attain this objective, the researchers are building new tools that will measure the characteristics of IPv6 adoption at the edge and developing new methodologies to compare characteristics of IPv4 and IPv6 connectivity. The resulting data sets will serve as input to the next task: correlating these observations with other available technical and socioeconomic data, such as address allocation, geographic and traffic data, ISP organizational structure, and political/regulatory factors potentially influencing IPv6 deployment.Finally, CAIDA and NPS researchers are going to conduct quantitative assessment of IPv6 performance, including the impact of transition technologies and traffic characteristics. This study will improve the state of quantitative modeling of the IPv6 transition by gathering rigorous empirical data on the extent and effectiveness of converter technologies, investigating prevailing concerns over IPv6 performance and path inflation, and analyzing actual IPv6 traffic workloads on a major U.S. backbone.The intellectual merit of this project includes solid empirically grounded understanding of the most difficult architectural transition ever attempted on the Internet, while simultaneously advancing the state-of-the-art in network measurement science and technology. A rigorous approach to the study of IPv6 deployment represents a compelling case study for the current Internet, with applicability to technology transfer challenges in other domains. To maximize their broader impact, the results will be widely disseminated to research, commercial, and government sectors, informing communications and technology policies. Data, tools, and methodologies will be available to researchers and used to create accessible educational materials for future generations, who will be even more dependent on a robust Internet than we are today.