| NSF Org: |
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems |
| Recipient: |
|
| Initial Amendment Date: | May 4, 2012 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | May 8, 2014 |
| Award Number: | 1111449 |
| Award Instrument: | Continuing Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Darleen Fisher
CNS Division Of Computer and Network Systems CSE Directorate for Computer and Information Science and Engineering |
| Start Date: | May 1, 2012 |
| End Date: | April 30, 2016 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $1,336,436.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,352,436.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2013 = $460,989.00 FY 2014 = $16,000.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
|
| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
9500 GILMAN DR LA JOLLA CA US 92093-0021 (858)534-4896 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
|
| Primary Place of Performance: |
9500 GILMAN DR LA JOLLA CA US 92093-0021 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
|
| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
|
| Parent UEI: |
|
| NSF Program(s): |
Special Projects - CNS, Networking Technology and Syst |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001314DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 01001415DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
|
| Program Element Code(s): |
|
| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.070 |
ABSTRACT
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
Note:
When clicking on a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) number, you will be taken to an external
site maintained by the publisher. Some full text articles may not yet be available without a
charge during the embargo (administrative interval).
Some links on this page may take you to non-federal websites. Their policies may differ from
this site.
PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
Broad industry awareness of IPv4 address scarcity has driven universal
support for IPv6 in most modern operating systems and network equipment. Although the uptake of IPv6 is still slow, its adoption renders many existing methods to measure and monitor the Internet ineffective. In this project, we improved the fidelity, scope, and usability of IPv6 measurement technology and collected vast amounts of data on IPv6 topology and performance. We expanded our Ark measurement infrastructure, deploying more monitors capable of IPv6 probing all over the world. We designed and tested measurement primitives for adaptive and intelligent probing, boosting the efficiency of IPv6-scale topology measurements. We developed, implemented, and validated the first Internet-scale alias resolution technique and the first Internet-scale AS routing relationship inference technique for IPv6. We also created a completely new system for bulk lookups of DNS mappings for IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.
We also developed and applied novel analysis methodologies. We investigated the AS-level congruency of IPv4 and IPv6 paths in the Internet and found that more than 60% of the current IPv4 and IPv6 AS-paths were non-congruent at the AS-level. Multi-Path TCP can exploit this condition to improve application performance in addition to providing resilience. We compared stability, and RTT performance of IPv4 and IPv6 paths and found that in both control and data plane experiments, IPv6 exhibited less stability than IPv4. We also found evidence of correlated performance degradation over IPv4 and IPv6 caused by shared infrastructure.
Finally, we correlated address allocation patterns with observable traffic and geopolitical factors examining per-country allocation and deployment rates through the lens of the annual "Day in the Life of the Internet" snapshots collected at the DNS roots by the DNS Operations, Analysis, and Research Center from 2009-2014. Our interactive data analysis is at http://www.caida.org/research/policy/dns-country/.
Our analysis methodologies and research results provide much needed insights to network operators, governments, and Internet policy makers about the status, progress, challenges, and future of the IPv6 in the global Internet.
Intellectual Merit. The project advanced the state-of-the-art in network measurement and technology while providing empirically grounded understanding of the crucial architectural transition that the Internet is currently undergoing. Our rigorous approach to the study of IPv6 deployment not only represents a compelling case study of transformations in the current Internet, but is applicable to technology transfer challenges in other domains as well.
Broader Impact. We widely disseminated our results to research, commercial, and government sectors, helping to inform communications and technology policies. We published 12 papers, organized and hosted 4 workshops, and released 3 ongoing and 2 one-time snapshot data sets. In order to advance community interest and involvement in IPv6 research, all our IPv6 related data sets are publicly available for download.
Last Modified: 06/29/2016
Modified by: Kimberly C Claffy
Please report errors in award information by writing to: awardsearch@nsf.gov.
