IPv6

Internet Protocol Version 6, or IPv6, is the next generation protocol designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IP Version 4 (IPv4). Most of today’s Internet uses IPv4, which is now almost 20 years old and is beginning to have problems. Perhaps the most serious is the diminishing supply of available IPv4 addresses, which are needed by all new machines added to the Internet.

IPv6 fixes this and other problems in IPv4 and adds many improvements to IPv4 in areas such as routing and network auto-configuration. IPv6 should gradually replace IPv4.

Access to IPv6 made easier

Access to Internet Protocol Version 6, or IPv6, is now much easier for UW-Madison Internet users. WiscNet has secured a block of IP addresses (in the form of a /32 IPv6 prefix) from the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), which enables UW-Madison Internet users to try out IPv6 applications. This entryway to IPv6 is part of a three-node core backbone connecting Eau Claire, Milwaukee, and Madison, making possible the use of IPv6 applications across WiscNet.

Internet users at UW-Madison can investigate the new IPv6 link through the Web site of the Active Measurement Project’s (AMP) Internet latency measurement project. (See AMP and IPv6 AMP ) Sponsored by the National Laboratory for Applied Network Research (NLANR), this project actively measures and archives Internet traffic characteristics, such as round-trip times, topology and loss. On-demand throughput tests will be added soon.

WiscNet has allocated to UW-Madison a /48 IPv6 prefix. UW-Madison receives IPv6 connectivity through Abilene.