Irish IPv6 Task Force: Promoting the Next Generation of the Internet in Ireland

1. Irish IPv6 Task Force IPv6 World Congress Las Vegas, Nevada 20th Feb 2006 Mícheál Ó Foghlú <mofoghlu@tssg.org>

2. Overview • Historical Context • Irish IPv6 Task Force • Irish National IPv6 Centre • Planed Events • Discussion • Future Direction • Questions • (Appendix I, II, III, IV Centre Partners)

3. Europe

4. Ireland

5. Historical Context: Ireland • One of original EU 15, Now EU 25 • Poster boy of the ICT & Biotech industries (Celtic Tiger) • More than one mobile phone per person • Example of how EU infrastructural investment can transform member states’ economies • Much of economy based on FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) largely from North America • Current political shift is for FDI to focus on research (part of building a “knowledge economy”) • Argument: need to promote IPv6 in Ireland to show Ireland has a place in next generation of the Internet

6. Historical Context: Politics • An interest in IPv6 in a number of constituencies in late 1990s: • Academic Networking • HEAnet (National Research Network, NREN) • European Funded Research & Development • Framework 5 Programme • Individual projects with Irish partners • IPv6 Cluster • Framework 6 Programme • Other • National Research Programmes

7. Irish Presidency of EU 2004 • Irish Presidency Jan 2004-Jun 2004 of EU gave a political opportunity to engage with the Irish national government department with responsibility for communications • DCMNR (Department of Marine, Communications and Natural Resources) • This political lobbying in 2003 culminated in John Browne TD, speaking at the launch of the IPv6 research network in Brussels in January 2004. • “The ability for every electronic device to have its own unique Internet address opens up endless possibilities for manufacturers and consumers." • John Browne TD • Irish Minister of State, DCMNR • Event URL: http://www.global-ipv6.net/

8. Irish IPv6 Task Force • After the Brussels event a series of Task Force Meetings called: • March 2004 • November 2004 • January 2005 (gap during formation of Centre) • February 2006 • Main initial outcomes were: • Draft document for formal release • Agreement to officially nominate a “Nation IPv6 Centre” to support the Task Force operationally

9. Irish National IPv6 Centre • Call for Proposals (CfP) • CfP released 12th April 2005 • Submission deadline 3rd May 2005 • Evaluated over summer 2005 • Irish National IPv6 Centre Launch • 30th September 2005 • DCMNR (Martin Cullen, Minister) • EU Commission (Mario Campolargo) • Partners of centre (WIT, NUI Maynooth, HEAnet, BT Ireland) • Supporters of centre (Dublin INEX, SFI, IPv6 Forum)

10. National IPv6 Centre: Makeup • Telecommunications Software & Systems Group, Waterford Institute of Technology • Hamilton Institute, NUI Maynooth • HEAnet • BT Ireland

11. National IPv6 Centre: Mission • Support the Irish IPv6 Task Force • Launched Jan 2004 (by Minister John Browne TD, Minister of State, DCMNR) • Promote the uptake of IPv6 in Ireland • Awareness raising and deployment issues • Research the fundamentals of IPv6 protocols • Low level issues • Research the next generation services based on IPv6 • High level issues • National IPv6 Centre partners will collaborate to create a critical mass of IPv6-related activity in Ireland • Combine to address all these issues and have an impact nationally and internationally

12. Discussion • Can view the Irish IPv6 Task Force as being in two phases: • Phase I • Setup phase • Initial meetings and creation of centre • Phase II • Now beginning • Activity phase • Looking to this event to give potential structure for maximizing impact of Phase II

13. Discussion (cont) • Task Force represents three main constituents: • Academic research at protocol and service layers (WIT, NUI Maynooth) • Academic networking (HEAnet) • National government (DCMNR) • Industrial (BT Ireland – linked to research interests in UK Labs, Ipswich) Note: commercial support still driven by research interests rather than deployment commitments

14. Questions • Mícheál Ó Foghlú <mofoghlu@tssg.org> • Research Director TSSG, WIT, Ireland • http://www.tssg.org • Director, Irish National IPv6 Centre • http://www.ireland-ipv6.org • Happy to Take Questions!!

15. APPENDIX I: TSSG @ WIT • Details of my involvement in IPv6 related activities in the TSSG in WIT • This may be too specific to my own organisation so I’ve appended it as an optional appendix….

16. TSSG/WIT and IPv6: EU FP5 • In the EU FP5 the TSSG was involved in a number of projects that became member of the EU IPv6 Cluster due to their engagement with issues related to IPv6 at various levels. These are documented in the two formal reports produced by the IPv6 Cluster [IPv6 Cluster 2002] [IPv6 Cluster 2003]. The FP5 IPv6 projects involving the TSSG were: • INTERMON (this looked as quality of services for IP and in particular at inter-domain issues of quality of service for both IPv4 and IPv6) • TORRENT (this looked at developing an intelligent residential gateway for managing multiple type of home Internet connectivity; it was based on an all IPv6 architecture to enable security with IPsec; the activity in the TSSG included benchmarking the performance of IPsec for IPv6 to see how much equipment would be required in an ISP to support such an infrastructure)

17. TSSG/WIT and IPv6: Irish • The TSSG won funding from the Irish TSR programme (for Institute of Technology) for a Strand III project: • CONVERGE (this investigated the three related issues of quality of service, security and accounting for converged IP-based services including IPv4 and IPv6). • The TSSG led up a submission to the HEA PRTLI Cycle 3 of a basic research programme focused on managed zones of smart spaces. The core architectural approach from the TSSG assumes the use of IPv6 as a pervasive internetworking technology and seeks to leverage the capabilities that this provides such as mobile IPv6: • M-Zones (managing the next generation of interoperable smart spaces). • The TSSG has made the development of an integrated testbed core to its ongoing research activities. In January 2005 the • SFI PI Award for Autonomic Computing • included a substantial budget for development of this integrated testbed for next generation services, including location detection. This is entirely IPv6 at its lower layers and utilises IPv6 features for quality of service, security and mobility.

18. TSSG/WIT and IPv6: EU FP6 • Having established this broad base of interest in IPv6, and continuing to represent TORRENT and INTERMON at the regular IPv6 Cluster meetings, the TSSG made IPv6 a part of its ongoing research strategy making it core to all its submissions in Calls 1-4 of FP6. A number of these proposals were successful and are now running: • Daidalos (creating a platform for pervasive communications services over IPv6) • SEINIT (securing pervasive communications services over IPv6) • SecurIST (setting the security agenda for the next EU research framework FP7) • ENABLE (exploring various forms of Mobile IPv6)

19. APPENDIX II: HEAnet

20. HEAnet - history • HEAnet has been providing production level IPv6 services throughout its network since 2003. The protocol is supported throughout the core network, at all access points of presence (PoPs), and through peerings with other networks in Ireland, in the rest of Europe, in North America and elsewhere. At present, we have three institutions connected via native IPv6 (dual stacked with their IPv4 connectivity) and four institutions with IPv6 tunnel connections. Approximately 1% of the traffic in HEAnet is IPv6 at present.

21. HEAnet – status matrix • HEAnet publishes a status matrix [HEAnet 2005] that shows various metrics for the uptake of IPv6 within HEAnet, as well as in other NRENs in Europe. HEAnet was among the very first RIPE clients to support the IPv6 implementation of the Test Traffic Measurement service. • http://www.ripe.net/projects/ttm/

22. HEAnet – software development • HEAnet has also acted as a developer of IPv6 software. They have developed the current IPv6 implementations for Apache, NSD and more. They have also added IPv6 multicast support to the Apache Portable Runtime, and have organised IPv6 programming training in-house.

23. HEAnet - other • HEAnet have also developed their own testing tools, such as multicast netcat which has full ASM and SSM IPv6 Multicast support. Their work and experience have helped to diagnose an array of obscure IPv6 implementation bugs ranging from the IPv6 sendfile bug on Linux (TCP checksum offloading bugs) to Cisco CEF bugs. Staff in HEAnet have demonstrated a proven ability in finding and diagnosing problems. • HEAnet is involved with SixXS, and also provides a 6to4 relay. These services help to promote IPv6 more widely and to provide transition mechanisms to a large amount of users in the country, whether they are in HEAnet or not.

24. HEAnet HEAnet is Ireland's National Research and Education Network (NREN), providing high quality Internet Services to over 150,000 students and staff in Irish Universities, Institutes of Technology and other educational and research organisations. It provides a high-speed national network with direct connectivity for its community to other networks in Ireland, Europe, the USA and the rest of the world. • Since its formation, the HEAnet community has grown five-fold to over 40 organisations that include almost every Irish third-level institutions. • Today it is one of the largest Internet Service Providers in the country, though it is exclusively geared to meet the needs of the academic and research community through the highest quality telecommunications links and value-added Internet services.

25. APPENDIX III: Hamilton Institute @ NUI Maynooth, Ireland

26. Hamilton Institute (NUI Maynooth) • The Hamilton Institute is a multi-disciplinary research centre formally established at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth in November 2001. • The Hamilton Institute has an active networks group. Research is ongoing in a number of areas at the Transport, Network and MAC layers of the network stack. • There are also groups working in Hybrid Systems Theory, Machine Learning & Cognitive Neuroscience, Dynamics and Interaction and Systems Biology. • The Hamilton Institute has 8 Faculty, 12 Research Fellows, 16 Research Students and a visitor program facilitating a number of researchers from other international institutions. • These researchers are supported by a number of grants. The common theme in all projects at the Hamilton Institute is mathematics and its applications, particularly in ICT and biology.

27. Hamilton Institute (NUI Maynooth) • A 4 year partnership centred on wireless networking between the Hamilton Institute, Dublin Institute of Technology, University of Limerick, Intel Ireland and Corvil Networks has been funded by the Science Foundation Ireland . • The Hamilton Institute is working on strands of this project relating to algorithms and protocols at the MAC layer. Research on network dynamics and Internet Transport layer dynamics is also conducted under Science Foundation Ireland funding in collaboration with HEAnet .

28. Hamilton Institute (NUI Maynooth) • David Malone: • a project to study the implications of IPv6 for fire-walling, resulting in a successful MEngSc thesis; • a project to study the impact of DNS problems on IPv6 deployment, presented as work at the RIPE DNS working group; • a project to assess the availability of "6to4" routers, awaiting publication; • an ongoing project to analyse IPv6 deployment trends, in conjunction with HEAnet. • David has been involved with IPv6 deployment projects at a number of sites including Trinity College Dublin, the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies and the Dublin Institute of Technology. • David is a co-author of a book on IPv6 Administration and has also been involved in testing of Eircom's trial IPv6 services.

29. APPENDIX IV: BT Ireland

30. BT Ireland • BT in Ireland is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT Group plc, and a fully integrated division of BT Global Services. • With over 900 employees, the company is headquartered in Dublin with offices in Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford. • BT in Ireland helps organisations large and small, corporate and public, Irish and global to thrive through the provision of networked communication services. • The parent company, BT is one of the world’s leading providers of communications solutions serving customers in Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific. Its principal activities include IT and networking services, local, national and international telecommunications services, and higher-value broadband and internet products and services. • BT consists principally of three lines of business: • BT Retail, • providing a comprehensive range of communications and related services • BT Wholesale, • providing network services and solutions to fixed and mobile operators and service providers including the provision of broadband, private circuits. • BT Global Services, • providing IT and networking services to meet the needs of multi-site organisations globally. BT Global Services operates in more than 130 countries and also offers international carrier services.

31. BT Ireland • Research Activity • BT have been involved in the specification, development and deployment of IPv6 for many years now. BT has been a major partner within many leading collaborative projects that have had a primary focus on IPv6. • Additionally we have been active within many promotional and policy setting bodies at both national and pan-European level. BT’s research technology and IT operations division, BT Exact, has a distinguished track record of leading edge testbed development and vendor capability evaluation. Well-established contacts with IP vendors have enabled BT to monitor and influence the development of IP network technology. • BT’s IPv6 highlights are: • BT has been actively involved in the IETF standardisation process for IPv6 development, particularly in the transition tools area. • BT was one of the first carriers to obtain IPv6 TLA address allocations • BT engineers have many years experience of developing and operating IPv6 trial and test networks such as the initial global IPv6 backbone and LEAnet, a BT deployed IPv6 WAN with PoPs in Cambridge, Ipswich and London. BT has been involved in several world-first demonstrations of IPv6 technology including IPv6 over GPRS and 3G, and has demonstrated at events such as the Global IPv6 Summit and the Global IPv6 Service Launch Event. • BT has implemented and deployed migration tools such as NAT-PT, DSTM, 6to4 relay and IPv6 Tunnel broker. Based upon this detailed implementation experience, BT has filed several patents in the area of IPv4 to IPv6 inter-working and transition.

32. BT Ireland • BT has been heavily involved in European Union collaborative research projects such as 6INIT, Eurescom Armstrong, 6WINIT, Euro6IX, and 6LINK. As a consequence BT is a key player in the European IPv6 R&D community. BT is a work package leader in the newly formed SEINIT project which is examining IPv6 and security technologies on an international testbed. • BT enjoys key positions on the IPv6 Forum, the EU IPv6 Task Force Steering Committee and the UK IPv6 Task Force providing IPv6 promotion to the wider community. These roles allow BT to maintain a detailed understanding of the technology policy decisions driving IPv6 deployment, and the ability to influence the key players in both government and industry. • IPv6 @IETF51 – First time host provided IPv6 connectivity and with commercial IPv6 address space • BT consultants have been draw upon by the European Commission, United Kingdom Government, and several large private enterprises to provide IPv6 expertise and advice. • BT has developed and operates the UK6x (http://www.uk6x.com/), the first IPv6 Internet Exchange in the UK. Utilising this infrastructure, BT is providing native IPv6 peering and transit to many customers, and tunnelled connections to early adopters. • IPv6 is a central element of BT’s recently announced ‘21CN’ initiative to provide mobile, multimedia services across an integrated multi-service network carrying both traditional voice services and IP-based services over a unified IP core.

33. BT Ireland • In Adastral Park, Ipswich, UK, BT has its leading research and technology centre, providing IPv6 connectivity to advanced research and collaborative projects and network testbeds. • These IPv6 network testbeds have been regularly used to evaluate emerging vendor equipment and applications. • BT has been involved in a number of collaborative projects both Eurescom and European Commission funded. Together, these activities have looked at a wide range of problems including: • Deploying an example of the IPv6 Internet across Europe. • Investigating the interoperability of interworking mechanisms. • Wireless access and healthcare applications. • The role of IPv6 exchange points in a pan-European network. • Security within large-scale IP networks.