NeTS: Small: Exploring the Challenges of Network Migration - An IPv6 Case Study and its Consequences

将互联网规模的基础设施过渡到更新的技术是一项不小的壮举。我们正处于这样的过渡中，即从互联网协议版本4(IPv4)到其版本6(IPv6)。IPv6在15年前就已经标准化了，但直到最近，采用它的动力还很小。最近分配的最后一大块IPv4地址改变了这一点，迁移到IPv6互联网变得更加紧迫。然而，这种迁移仍然充满了不确定性和挑战，我们克服这些不确定性和挑战的能力可以在过渡的持续时间和成本方面发挥重要作用，许多人认为过渡对互联网的持续增长至关重要。在这种背景下，这项研究的目的是双重的。首先，它试图洞察互联网向IPv6过渡仍然面临的一些障碍，并提出可能的补救措施。其目的是找出仍然存在的主要障碍，以便集中努力消除这些障碍。特别是，IPv6连接质量对内容提供商(如Google、YouTube、Yahoo、Hulu等)通过IPv6直接访问的决策的影响对可行的IPv6互联网至关重要。推迟这些决定不仅会延长向IPv6互联网过渡的时间，还会因为需要昂贵的网关而使过渡变得更加繁重。因此，确保采用IPv6的过程中没有或尽可能少的障碍对互联网的未来至关重要。为了实现这一目标，该项目采取了双管齐下的方式。第一个依赖于一组广泛的衡量标准来表征整个互联网上对IPv6的采用；特别是与内容访问有关的内容。第二个涉及分析这些测量数据，以提取导致IPv4和IPv6之间性能差异的共同属性。识别这些常见属性将有助于查明IPv6性能较差的原因(如果存在)。因此，使补救措施能够促进更全面、更迅速地采用IPv6。这项研究的第二个目标是开发能够帮助我们更好地理解并最终规划未来互联网向更新技术迁移的“模型”。这些模型寻求将采用新的网络技术与采用该技术的好处和成本联系起来，同时考虑到通常占主导地位的现有技术的影响。将要调查的模型依赖于营销学和经济学的方法，但研究的一个关键方面将是使用项目第一部分获得的测量数据来验证这些模型。因此，验证将在迁移到IPv6的背景下进行，但结果应该对未来的迁移产生影响，包括迁移到提供当前互联网版本所不具备的新功能和附加功能的技术，无论是IPv4还是IPv6。该项目的更广泛影响体现在两个方面。确保互联网向其较新版本IPv6的顺利迁移可能会产生重大的社会和经济影响。它可以促进许多设备更快地集成在一起，这些设备现在正在支持互联网，在此过程中，对新互联网地址的需求不断增长，因此对IPv6的需求也在不断增长。这种物联网延伸到汽车、智能公用事业仪表、监测桥梁健康状况的传感器、供水等设备，所有这些设备都具有巨大的潜力，可以创造一个更安全、更清洁的环境。然而，实现这一潜力在很大程度上取决于成功迁移到IPv6；该项目希望促进这一点。此外，为更好地了解影响向较新网络技术迁移的因素而开发的模型代表了多学科研究的一个实例，其成功可以促进跨学科的进一步协作和互动。它还可以帮助培养博士生，更好地为解决现代研究问题做好准备。

Transitioning an infrastructure of the size of the Internet to a newer technology is no small feat. We are in the midst of such a transition, i.e., from the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to its version 6 (IPv6). IPv6 was standardized 15 years ago, but until recently there were few incentives to adopt it. The recent allocation of the last large block of IPv4 addresses changed that, and migrating to an IPv6 Internet has become more urgent. This migration is, however, still rife with uncertainties and challenges, and our ability to overcome them can play a major role in both the duration and the cost of a transition that many view as vital to the continued growth of the Internet. In this context, the goals of this research are two-fold. First, it seeks to provide insight into some of the obstacles that the Internet's transition to IPv6 still faces, and propose possible remedies. The intent is to identify where major roadblocks remain, so as to focus efforts on eliminating them. In particular, the impact of IPv6 connectivity quality on the decisions of content providers, i.e., the likes of Google, YouTube, Yahoo, Hulu, etc., to become directly accessible over IPv6 is critical to a viable IPv6 Internet. Delays in those decisions will not only extend the duration of the transition to an IPv6 Internet, it will make it much more onerous because of the need for expensive gateways. As a result, ensuring that there is no or as few as possible obstacles to adopting IPv6 is of critical importance to the future of the Internet. To realize this goal, the project follows a two-prong approach. The first relies on an extensive set of measurements for characterizing IPv6 adoption across the Internet; in particular in as much as it relates to access to content. The second involves analyzing these measurement data to extract common attributes that contribute to differences in performance between IPv4 and IPv6. Identifying those common attributes will help pinpoint causes of poorer IPv6 performance, when present. Hence, enabling remedies to foster a more complete and more rapid adoption of IPv6.The second goal of this research is to develop 'models' that can help us better understand and eventually plan future Internet migrations to newer technologies. Those models seek to connect the adoption of a new network technology to the benefits and costs of adopting it, while accounting for the effect of an often dominant incumbent technology. The models that will be investigated rely on methodologies from marketing science and economy, but a key aspect of the research will be to validate those models using the measurement data obtained in the first part of the project. The validation will, therefore, be cast in the context of a migration to IPv6, but the results should have implications for future migrations, including migrations to technologies that offer new and additional capabilities not available from current Internet versions, be they IPv4 or IPv6.The broader impact of the project is along two fronts. Ensuring that the Internet's migration to its newer version, IPv6, proceeds smoothly can have a significant societal and economical impact. It can facilitate a faster integration of the many devices that are now becoming Internet enabled, and that in the process are fueling the growing need for new Internet addresses, and therefore IPv6. This 'Internet of Things' extends to devices like cars, smart utility meters, sensors monitoring the health of bridges, water supply, etc., that all have a tremendous potential for a safer and cleaner environment. Realizing this potential is, however, heavily depend on a successful migration to IPv6; something that the project hopes to facilitate. Additionally, the development of models to better understand the forces that shape migrations to newer network technologies represents an instance of multi-disciplinary research whose success can foster further collaboration and interactions across disciplines. It can also help train doctoral students better equipped to tackle modern research problems.