New addresses for old

Vishwanath Kulkarni

WHAT do you do to a city bursting at its seams? Expand into new areas, of course. In other words, create more real-estate space and ensure more people occupy these spaces to lessen the congestion in developed areas. Now, what do you do when the Internet faces a problem of too little to supply increasing hordes of surfers? For the Internet, space is not a constraint. But addresses are.

Foxed? Here's what that means. Every device that logs on to the Internet, be it a PC, a home appliance, a mobile device or a set-top box - is assigned a unique address to help it communicate. Using the current technology standard, it is possible to assign a certain number of such addresses and not beyond. Because the number of Internet surfers has increased - and is still increasing, it is necessary to move to a new standard that will help assign more addresses.

The number of Internet users is expected to touch 977 million by 2005 from the present 200 million, according to International Data Corporation. IP, the network-layer protocol, is one of the foundations of the Internet. The currently-used version, Internet Protocol 4 (IPv4), is an outgrowth of the Internet's early days when the medium was merely a data-sharing network for a relatively few research facilities and the military.

The dynamic growth of the Internet has revealed the limitations of IPv4, the backbone of the TCP/IP networks. The most conspicuous problem faced by IPv4 is limited availability of address space. The present protocol is running short of addresses to accommodate the increasing number of Web sites. The IP address (example: 151.99.33.4) is a 32-bit integer. The IPv4 32 bit allows for over 4 billion addresses. With increasing connectivity, it is expected that by 2010 all the available addresses will be consumed. The need for more address space will be driven by the growing use of small access devices.

To address this problem, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the governing body of the Internet, began working in 1990 on the next generation protocol that became the IPv6. The IETF-architected IPv6 has 16 bytes or 128 bits and hence the total address space has become 2 raise to 128.

An example of an IPv6 address can be like fec0:1234:0:1:feaa:a200:3400:0. This address space is so large that it appears virtually inexhaustible. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, creating enough addresses for every person and device many times over. It also does far more than that. The so-called smarter packet that is IPv6 facilitates the global move towards anywhere, anytime, anyway Internet access - especially wireless mobile access and provides for increased functionality in such commercially-important areas as security and in the quality of service.

A real case for IPv6

The evolving trends in the communications industry point to the need for such a protocol.

Consider the following:

*Worldwide the number of Internet users is projected to touch 600 million by 2004, according to Mobile Computing Forecast:2000, Gartner Advisory.

*Every year, 25 to 30 per cent more portable computers are sold than the previous year.

*Worldwide wireless subscribers are projected to grow from 450 million to 1 billion by 2005.

*The number of mobile handsets will overtake the number of fixed lines within a couple of years.

A variety of IP-enabled devices, especially hand-helds, are being introduced in the market, that range from personal organisers to WAP-enabled phones to games consoles. The day is not far when domestic appliances become part of the home network. All these hi-tech gadgets necessitate the need for IP addresses.

Advantages galore

Besides the address space scalability, the IETF has incorporated several additional features into the IPv6 protocol to benefit Internet users.

*Security

The IPv6 brings a new standard of services and security to applications, boosting the prospects for e-commerce while simultaneously reinforcing public confidence in such transactions. Security was an add-on in IPv4 and it was usually impossible for a server to determine whether packets were being received from a legitimate end node, whereas it is inbuilt in IPv6. The authentication of sender and encryption of packet is inbuilt in IPv6.

*Quality of service

The introduction of services such as multimedia, conferencing and voice call over the Internet requires certain guarantees from the networks in terms of priority, speed of delivery etc, based on the type of traffic. These quality-of-service requirements are integrated as part of IPv6. For instance, the traffic generated by a video conferencing application will have more priority over regular data traffic.

*Auto configuration

Auto configuration is one of the greatest advantages of IPv6 - for both consumers and network operators - because it greatly reduces the time and money spent managing and configuring systems. In the case of IPv4 networks, the administrator needs to manually configure the IP addresses for making the machine network-enabled. For IPv6 networks, the machine will automatically identify the address and configure it.

*Mobile IP

Mobility is the driving force behind today's new wave of communication devices. The need for being connected even when moving around necessitates a mobile IP address. Mobility was hardly a concept or practice when IPv4 came into existence but now it requires additional infrastructure because it necessitates informing any agent in the routing process about a new location. However, mobile IP via IPv6 requires no such infrastructure as the routing is handled by software.

With all these advantages, IPv6 is ready to replace IPv4 in the Internet. But the changeover cannot happen overnight as was the case when ARPANET migrated from 8 bits to 32 bits in 1983. The IETF has published guidelines for migrating from IPv4 to IPV6 so that both the protocols can co-exist for some time before the complete switchover takes place.

Implications for India

Currently, 85 per cent of the total IP addresses are allocated and used by the US, because of its early entry into the IT field. So the shortage of IP address is primarily felt in the rest of the world. Consequently, countries in the Asia-Pacific region are spearheading the implementation and acceptance of IPv6 quickly.

''Awareness is building up in India about IPv6 while some companies have started building applications,'' says Hemant T.D., President, IPv6 Forum India.

India has only 3 Class B addresses, which translate into two lakh addresses for one billion people. Which means, the addresses are dynamically allocated to the users, says Hemant. The allotment of address, done by the APNIC (Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre), is analogous to a telephone PBX. ''The moment a person hooks on to the Internet through a dial-up, he is allotted one of the two lakh addresses reserved in case of India and the moment he logs out, the address is reallocated to somebody else,'' he says. The IP addresses are being rationed at present and with the implementation of IPv4, it will become a luxury, says Hemant.

With the increasing connectivity and Internet connections, the demand for addresses is going to create problems in India.

''The IPv4 is like a rubber band. It can be stretched to a particular limit. If the rubber band is stretched even further, there are chances of the band losing elasticity. The same applies to the IPv4,'' says Hemant.

With the proposed opening of Voice Over IP, the situation is likely to be more pressing, says Hemant. With India not having sufficient addresses and no address being permanently allotted to individuals, users of the proposed VoIP will not be able to use the call-back facility, i.e, they will not be able to provide a permanent address to the person at the other end to call back. This problem can be solved with the implementation of IPv6, he says.

The IPv6 Forum India, set up recently, is working on creating awareness about the need for deploying such a network. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard India Software Operations (HPISO) and Infosys Technologies are members of the IPv6 x Forum and support its activities. With interest building up, many more companies are interested in joining the Forum, says Hemant.

The IPv6 Forum India is planning to implement an IPv6 Network on a metropolitan scale in Bangalore, India's IT hub, for which the modalities are being worked out. ''It is always good to start on a local scale. Talks have been going on for some time on this and a consensus is likely to emerge by January on how to go about this. The deployment of this network will help bridge the gap between researchers and the end users.''

Research institutes are also working on IPv6. BITS Pilani is part of the 6C backbone experiment while ERNET at the Indian Institute of Science is now thinking of prototyping IPv6.

While IT companies such as Infosys are also believed to have developed their own IPv6 network for internal research purposes, companies such as Phoenix Global Solutions have developed solutions that help in transition from IPv4 to IPv6.

According to Arun Venkatapur, Senior Project Manager, Phoenix Global, his company has developed an IPv4 to IPv6 converter, a tool which identifies and migrates the portion of the code (cCode) from IPv4-related junctions, structures and constants to its IPv6 equivalent. It has also developed the SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) Phone, which works over IPv4/IPv6.

HPISO has been associated with IPv6 and has been working on it for some time. ''We are basically enabling our TCP/IP infrastructure to support IPv6 and we actively support the IPv6 Forum,'' says Balaram Shivvi Bhavan, Vice-President, R&D, HPISO.

HPISO has already developed a distributed environment Cool Town, which supports IPv6.

''We are also looking at setting up a competency centre in India to build applications that support IPv6,'' he says.

Opportunity for Indian firms

According to Gopi Krishna Garge of Exocore Consulting and Vice-President IPv6 Forum India, the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 presents a huge business opportunity for Indian IT companies.

However, there are no reliable estimates of the market opportunity. Hardware vendors have already taken cognisance of IPv6 and are keen to make their equipment IPv6-compatible.

India is expected to be a part of the global IPv6 task force. While there is no set date for transition to IPv6 as in the case of Y2K, Hemant feels the sooner the transition takes place, the better. The IPv6 Forum is planning to rope in the Government and influence policy-makers on the need for early deployment of the IPv6.

Citing the case of Japan, which has already taken a lead in implementing IPv6, Hemant says the Indian Government should emulate the Japanese Government in formulating a policy in this regard. The IPv6 Forum is planning to hold a roundtable for Indian policy-makers as part of the Global IPv6 Forum, which is meeting in Bangalore January next.

vishwa@thehindu.co.in

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