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A First Byte of IPv8

  • From: Jim Fleming
  • Date: Tue Nov 04 01:03:52 1997

To NANOG list members...

Thanks for the interesting comments on IPv6 and
IPv4. It is always interesting to see why IPv6 is
the way it is. As you might know, IPv8 is not that
way...

All you have to do is look at the first byte of IPv8
to realize that it was designed for performance,
not to satisfy or calm the press.

There are 8 bits in that byte and they have been
carefully allocated as follows:

1OSSSDDD

1 - The IPv8 flag bit (IPv4 and IPv6 are 0)
O - Options Present (0 -  no, 1 - yes)
SSS - Source Galaxy
DDD - Destination Galaxy

By looking at only this first byte, routers can sort
packets destined for one of the 8 Galaxies very quickly.
Routers can also discover whether the header contains
options and route those packets locally for further
processing.

IPv8 has exactly the same size header as IPv4. It
is therefore easy to learn and understand.

IPv8 has been designed with 48 byte ATM payloads in mind.
Therefore, the performance people and QOS people will
be happy.

IPV8 has been designed for the emerging world of circuit
switched routing, where packets are moved a long way
without "hops" so that they can be delivered to their
intended destination as quickly as possible.

IPv8 was designed to address the routing problem
as well as the Address Management and Governance
problems. The 11 bits of addressing added to the 32 bit
IPv4 addresses are divided into 3 bits and 8 bits and
a natural hierarchy takes shape. The core has 8 regions
each with 256 distribution centers and from there full
32 bit Internets. This is 2,048 address spaces.

If these address spaces are managed well, they can
be used in IPv6 addressing. NANOG people may want
to consider focusing on address space management
without being concerned about the protocol header
format. NANOG could help to make a contribution in
making sure these emerging address spaces are
managed the way your members desire. That would be
a major contribution to the future of all the 2,048 Internets.


Jim Fleming
Unir Corporation
IBC, Tortola, BVI