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Past

IPv6 1998–2001

Évaluation des apports de la nouvelle génération de protocoles Internet IPv6

The IPv6 project demonstrated the value of letting the Internet protocols evolve. Its outlook was twofold: making IPv6 available to the academic community by taking part in the national Renater network’s IPv6 deployment project, and putting the expertise gained to use, as project members joined international manufacturers (Sun) or took part in other local and national research projects. We developed parts of the software needed for our experiments, and in doing so set up a collaboration with the IPv6 effort at INRIA-Rocquencourt. That cooperation led to several joint software deposits with the Agence pour la Protection des Programmes. The software was sold by INRIA to Bull and became the basis of the IPv6 stack for AIX on IBM and Bull systems. We also signed an agreement with Bull allowing them to use the test platform for their own work on the AIX IPv6 stack.

Objectives #

Until he left IMAG, A. Durand (IMAG-DMI) was an active member of the various IPv6 working groups at the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet’s standards body). He authored several working documents and became co-chair of the IETF working group on IPv6 deployment. In parallel, a French working group on IPv6 experimentation, bringing together academics and industry, had existed since late 1995. Members of the IPv6 project took an active part in it, and the group met regularly on IPv6 research themes: mobility, quality of service, deployment.

An experimental platform was set up, with hardware lent by several manufacturers (Digital Equipment, Bull, IBM). It supported an interoperability test campaign for the BGP4+ routing protocol, bringing together academics and manufacturers, and a contract with Bull to test the IPv6 software of the AIX system. The platforms of the G6 members were linked by an IPv6 network, the “G6bone”, built from tunnels running mostly over the Renater IPv4 infrastructure. Its topology centered on the IMAG platform, which also provided access to the “6bone”, the worldwide experimental IPv6 network.

Results #

  • Reference book on IPv6: G. Cizault (collective pseudonym). IPv6, Théorie et pratique. O’Reilly, 1998 (first edition) and 1999 (second edition, co-editor J-L. Richier).
  • Deposit of the software “IPv6 for NetBSD and FreeBSD” with the Agence pour la Protection des Programmes, 1998 and 2000.
  • Hosted a meeting of the IETF IPv6 working groups, Grenoble, 1999.
  • Hosted a week of IPv6 routing interoperability testing, Grenoble, 1998.
  • Software deposits, “IPv6 for NetBSD and FreeBSD”, Agence pour la Protection des Programmes, February 1996, February 1998, first quarter 2000.
  • Contract between Bull and INRIA for the commercial use of “IPv6 for NetBSD and FreeBSD”, 1997–1999.
  • Contract with Bull to test the AIX IPv6 software on the IMAG platform, 1997–1999.
  • Took part in the “IPv6 Bake-off” IPv6 software testing event (1–6 October 2000) organized by ETSI in Sophia Antipolis.
  • Talks and seminars on IPv6 in France and abroad: Convention IP Future'98, Paris, November 1998; CFIP (Colloque Francophone sur l’Ingénierie des Protocoles), Nancy, April 1999; 2nd Tunisian-French Workshop on Internet Technologies, Tunis, April 1999; Journées Réseaux (JRES 2001), December 2001.