A Flexible Transition Scheme within a Dual Stack Host in IPv4/IPv6 Coexistence Phase

Abstract

In an early transition period, the Internet consists of IPv4-only, IPv6-only or IPv4/IPv6 dual networks. Users want to connect to the Internet without any restriction and also still use their existing applications even after migration from IPv4 to IPv6 networks. Thus, we propose a new flexible transition scheme called CHADH (Coexistence of Heterogeneous Applications within a Dual stack Host). At this scheme, DSTM (Dual Stack Transition Mechanism) is tightly coupled with BIA (Bump In the API). With these coupling, Users can use their existing IPv4 applications to communicate with IPv6 host within IPv6 networks. Furthermore, seamless interworking with IPv4 networks can be also assured. Additionally, it can provide the users with adaptive environments to easily use their terminals in various networks environments. DNSv6 resolving can be also available to the users with the help of CHADH. We have implemented the prototype of CHADH on the Microsoft Windows 2000 and XP platforms. We have verified its usability through various experiments with existing applications and evaluated the performance in each network environments.