IPv6 at IEPG

By on 21 Aug 2014

Category: Tech matters

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Jen Linkova and Fernando Gont at IEPG presented a brief summary of IPv6 Extension Headers (EH). The bottom line take away is that if you add even one EH to an IPv6 packet, 10% of them get lost in the Internet because of filters and lack of router capabilities to use extension headers. If you add two or more, the packetloss rises to as high as 80%.

Its an object lesson in how not to design a protocol: if you specify optional features, you can guarantee somebody will elect not to implement them, and at that point if they become sufficiently common in the marketplace, your feature cannot be used. The value of an internet is a function of the connectivity between the parties on it, and reducing the set doesn’t add value. Great work from both of them (Jen is an ex-Sydney resident Google staffer who specializes in IPv6 measurement, Fernando works in Argentina and has been researching IPv6 addressing features for some time.)

Presentation slides here

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