6NET Project Confirmed the Readiness of Modern Data Networks for Transition to IPv6

The end of this June was the official finish of the international 6NET project, which was implemented as part of the 5th EU Framework Programme. Project results have confirmed that modern data networks are generally ready for switchover to the new IP communication protocol, version 6 (IPv6), which should eventually replace today's IPv4.

The three-and-a-half-year project included the implementation of a native IPv6 network interconnecting academic and commercial institutions in 16 countries. It allowed experts to test a range of services and applications based on the IPv6 protocol.

Thirty-six institutions from Europe and South-East Asia were involved in the international 6NET project, including CESNET from the Czech Republic. CESNET was also the host for the seventh and last meeting of the 6NET consortium, which took place in Prague this January. The final project assessment, conducted in Lisbon in late June, expressed full satisfaction with the results achieved in all monitored categories.

The IPv6 communication protocol has several advantages in comparison with its IPv4 predecessor:

• It greatly increases the number of available IP addresses. It expands the length of an address four times against IPv4, i.e. to 128 bits. This makes for 3.4×10³⁸ addresses – so there are more than 314 million IPv6 addresses per cubic millimetre of the Earth's volume. Even though the effectively usable number of addresses is much smaller, this will allow connecting virtually any device people use at work and at home – car, fridge, dishwasher, mobile phone – to the Internet without any problem.
• It allows devices to connect to the network using the "Plug and Play" method – each device will configure automatically and connect to the Internet as soon as it is switched on.
• It introduces the IPSec protocol as a mandatory standard to secure data transmissions at the IP level.

In early 2003, CESNET put into operation the Czech Republic's first international circuit implemented solely with the IPv6 protocol as part of the 6NET project. In collaboration with partners from abroad, CESNET provided direct connection to the 6NET project network with the IPv6 protocol, using a 155 Mbps Prague–Frankfurt am Main circuit. This was a milestone because all IPv6 circuits had only used various forms of IPv6 tunnelling inside the IPv4 protocol before.

During the 6NET project, CESNET focused mainly on the development of the Liberouter router. In March 2004, in collaboration with the CzechLight project, a prototype of the router with a COMBO6 card and a COMBO-4SFP (Gigabit Ethernet) interface card was deployed in a fibre-optic circuit from Prague to Amsterdam, where it was connected through a Cisco GSR backbone router directly to the core of the 6NET network.

The CESNET association was established by universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. It is currently financed by the government Council for Research and Development and by its members. The association performs research and development on information and communication technology and is building and developing the CESNET2 national gigabyte optical network for science, research, development and education. Thanks to its research activities and the results it has achieved, the CESNET association is the Czech Republic's representative in the project for the construction of the Pan-European GEANT2 network and is actively contributing to its implementation. The CESNET association is, among other things, intensively working on the development of specialized network devices based on programmable hardware such as the prototypes of a network adapter for network monitoring and an IPv6 router, Liberouter.