RFC 1710 (rfc1710) - Page 2 of 23
Simple Internet Protocol Plus White Paper
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1710 SIPP IPng White Paper October 1994
Simpson, Ran Atkinson, Bill Fink, Erik Nordmark, Christian Huitema,
Sue Thompson, and Ramesh Govindan.
2. Key Issues for the Next Generation of IP
There are several key issues that should be used in the evaluation of
any next generation internet protocol. Some are very
straightforward. For example the new protocol must be able to
support large global internetworks. Others are less obvious. There
must be a clear way to transition the current installed base of IP
systems. It doesn't matter how good a new protocol is if there isn't
a practical way to transition the current operational systems running
IPv4 to the new protocol.
2.1 Growth
Growth is the basic issue which caused there to be a need for a next
generation IP. If anything is to be learned from our experience with
IPv4 it is that the addressing and routing must be capable of
handling reasonable scenarios of future growth. It is important that
we have an understanding of the past growth and where the future
growth will come from.
Currently IPv4 serves what could be called the computer market. The
computer market has been the driver of the growth of the Internet.
It comprises the current Internet and countless other smaller
internets which are not connected to the Internet. Its focus is to
connect computers together in the large business, government, and
university education markets. This market has been growing at an
exponential rate. One measure of this is that the number of networks
in current Internet (23,494 as of 1/28/94) is doubling approximately
every 12 months. The computers which are used at the endpoints of
internet communications range from PC's to Supercomputers. Most are
attached to Local Area Networks (LANs) and the vast majority are not
mobile.
The next phase of growth will probably not be driven by the computer
market. While the computer market will continue to grow at
significant rates due to expansion into other areas such as schools
(elementary through high school) and small businesses, it is doubtful
it will continue to grow at an exponential rate. What is likely to
happen is that other kinds of markets will develop. These markets
will fall into several areas. They all have the characteristic that
they are extremely large. They also bring with them a new set of
requirements which were not as evident in the early stages of IPv4
deployment. The new markets are also likely to happen in parallel
with other. It may turn out that we will look back on the last ten
years of Internet growth as the time when the Internet was small and
Hinden