Page
last modified Monday, 15-Feb-2010 21:29:06 GMT
NewtonNet
is IPv6-enabled!
...
but unfortunately you are not!
This assumption is based on the fact that you appear to be coming from 38.107.191.85 - an IPv4 address.
(this could actually be the address of a web-proxy you are using,
knowingly or otherwise, however the end result is still the same)
The
NewtonNet server, Rugrat,
sits in my house on the end of a 10Mbps (512kbps upload) residential cable
broadband connection provided by Virgin
Media.
Unfortunately they only provide native IPv4 connectivity and
so in
order to have NewtonNet accessible via IPv6 I am having to tunnel
IPv6 inside IPv4.
Whilst
this all sounds wonderfully simple, the reality is rather more
complex...
I
am using the services and software from SixXS - an IPv6
Tunnel Broker project based in Switzerland. They have written
a utility called AICCU (Automatic
IPv6 Connectivity Client Utility) which automatically configures tunnels using TIC
(Tunnel Information & Control Protocol) between end-users and
an IPv6 Tunner Server, otherwise known as a PoP (Point of
Presence). For performance reasons, I tunnel my IPv6 traffic
to
a PoP in London operated by Goscomb
Technologies.
The PoP has connections to what you might term the 'IPv4
Internet'
and 'IPv6 Internet' and hence is able to pass traffic between the two.
The
tunnelling method itself can take on one of many forms, however given
my circumstances of using private (RFC1918) IP
addresses behind a NAT gateway to
a single dynamic public IP address I am using the AYIYA
(Anything In Anything) protocol to create an IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnel - this basically wraps ups my IPv6
packets as the payload inside UDP running over IPv4. You can read the
Internet-Draft describing exactly how it does this here.
In
addition to providing the IPv6 addresses for the tunnel, the Goscomb
PoP also routes a /48 prefix to my tunnel endpoint this giving me
plenty of IPv6 addresses to play with, 1.20892582 x 1024 (1.2 septillion) to be exact!
Once
the tunnel is established, my server then announces a /64 prefix to the
NewtonNet LAN using the Router Advertisement Daemon (radvd)
thus allowing IPv6-enabled clients to create their own
globally-unique addresses using stateless autoconfiguration. The server
also forwards IPv6 packets to/from the Internet on behalf of the local
IPv6-enabled clients.
Told you it was a bit complicated! They do however say a picture speaks a thousand words so here goes...
All clear now ?! ;-)
(Incidentally, yes, that is an IPv6-enabled Cat Feeder - see here for further details!)
Tunnel Statistics
The
following graphs show various usage and performance indicators for my
IPv6 tunnel and hence are useful, to me at least, to illustrate the
health of the connection and how much traffic is being carried by
IPv6. The latter measure is of particular interest as it should
generally reflect the adoption of IPv6 across the Internet.
IPv6 Throughput
- The following graphs show the average IPv6 throughput both for the last week and since the
tunnel was established in March 2008. Such traffic includes my own browsing
(generally captured by the green line) and others browsing my site
(red line). As you can see, the traffic in
both directions is a little thin on the ground... this should of
course increase over time as IPv6 adoption and services become more
widespread and so the graphs may ultimately prove most useful to roughly reflect this inevitable trend...


Tunnel Latency Statistics
- The following graphs shows the latency of my IPv6 tunnel as
viewed from Goscomb's PoP again over the past week and since the tunnel
was established. Measuring tunnel latency
is not only important to ensure that IPv6 traffic can flow freely but
it also serves as a useful indicator of the performance of my
underlying (IPv4) Internet connection. Transient issues manifest
themselves as spikes in the plot whereas complete loss of service is
indicated through a break in the graph line...


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Current server date/time is Tuesday 16th March 2010 / 00:02:26 GMT

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