Internet ossifying, warns architect

Stephen Withers
Thursday, 08 May 2008 11:56

Business IT - Networking

The potential for the Internet to continue to fuel collaboration, innovation and creativity is waning rather than increasing, according to a highly regarded network architect.

One of the most serious issues, says Geoff Huston, is the slow deployment of IPv6. Even though the IPv4 address pool is expected to be exhausted in two to three years and IPv6 (which provides a vast address range) was finalised a decade ago. Huston notes that "the level of industry interest in IPv6 deployment is scant," with the use of Network Address Translation (NAT) or application level gateways being used as workarounds instead.

Despite this urgency, "there is still no particular certainty that industry will adopt IPv6," he suggests.

Other issues highlighted by Huston include scalability problems with routing and transmission capacity, the integrity and scalability of the Domain Name System, overall integrity issues caused by malware and other forms of abuse, and the challenge of mobility in terms of distinguishing between identity and location given an address.

Huston, who was involved in the technical management of the Internet in Australia from its early days, made this observation in an appendix to AARNet's submission to Australia's National Innovation Review.

AARNet is a company owned by the country's 38 universities and CSIRO, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. AARNet owns and operates the digital infrastructure linking these and other organisations' research and education activities.

The submission makes six recommendations for government action:

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