published evidence and opinion
Assessment Assessment Criteria % weighting for each problem part
1 Limitation of Existing Internet 30
1.1 Discussion of IPv4 Limitations 20
1.3 Use of published supporting evidence 10
2 IPv6 Solutions 30
2.1 Analysis of IPv6 Solutions 20
2.3 Use of published evidence and opinion 10
3 IPv6 Deployment Strategies 30
3.1 IPv4 to IPv6 Transition Strategies 15
3.2 Assessment of most likely deployment path(s) including timescale 15
4 Report 10
4.1 Use of references 5
4.2 Quality of report including compliance with template
The problem
Over the last 30 years, the Internet has become a major infrastructure for growth, job creation, and social progress. The ‘size’ of the Internet is one such trend and holds a fascination for many people. One aspect of the population that is critically important to the operation of the Internet is the number of allocated IP addresses. Some parts of the world have already depleted their IPv4 allocations such as: APNIC, and RIPE NCC, and it is expected that the IPv4 allocations in the rest of the world will be exhausted in the near future. IPv6 is the next generation Internet Protocol developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to address the IPv4 address crisis. Besides the shortage of IP addresses the current Internet with its IPv4 protocol exhibits a number of limitations and lacks certain fundamental services necessary for modern applications.
You are required to research and report on this topic according to the Detail of Question below.
1. Limitation of Existing Internet: Provide a discussion on the limitations of the Internet and identify two issues that are not well addressed in the current IPv4 protocol, and that are considered by the IPv6 protocol. IP address exhaustion should not be considered in the discussion. You need to draw heavily on published evidence and opinion.
2. IPv6 Solutions: Based on the discussion and the issues identified in 1, provide a detailed description of the solutions proposed by IETF in IPv6 to address these limitations. You are required to explain how IPv6 addresses each of the issues already identified, and what are the mechanisms used for this purpose. You need to draw heavily on published evidence and opinion.
3. IPv6 Deployment Strategies: Identify at least three IPv4 to IPv6 transition strategies and provide an analysis of the likely deployment path of IPv6 i.e. which strategies are most likely to actually happen, and why, and the likely timescales involved.