Para lograr mayor facilidad que la configuración “site-by-site” del Ipv6, un consorcio australiano ha creado un router “plug and play”, basado en la distribución Ubuntu de Linux, que trae IPv6 nativo, configurado de fábrica, para facilitar el uso del nuevo protocolo por pequeñas empresas y en el hogar. Este ejemplar proyecto fué impulsado por el capítulo local del Forúm IPv6, la oficina local de ISOC, Builders.NET, ADIESA, y el NIC australiano. El consorcio así conformado solicitó y logró que el gobierno Federal de Australia les diera un “grant” de $200,000 (AU) provenientes de fondos del cannon de comunicaciones que pagan las empresas privadas al Estado y que son utilizadas y otorgadas por el Departamento de Communicaciones IT y Arte.
Since its inception in July last year, the IPv6 for e-Business project has worked to provide a portal for next-generation network technology by aggregating information from a series of national roadshows, infrastructure assessments, and a “mapping” process to estimate the level of support among local businesses.
Another key part of the project is the enabling activity which includes business case scenarios, an ROI evaluator, a transition checklist, and an easy access device (EAD).
This EAD is a prototype to allow IPv6 connectivity with a tunnel appliance for small businesses and home offices.
The “device” is a modified Ubuntu Linux distribution with open source IPv6 software loaded and configured with the aim of allowing straightforward, inexpensive IPv6 connectivity, without complex site-by-site deployments on an open standards server.
President of the IPv6Forum in Australia Michael Biber, an affiliate of the project, said the EAD was developed under contract and in the process of being made available to the public, but no timeframe has yet been set.
“Tunnel broker capability is already built into Windows Vista and Longhorn, and this open source tunnel broker enables people to experiment with IPv6 tunnels,” Biber said. “If you are sitting in an office and don’t have access to IPv6 you can use a broker to encapsulate Ipv6 traffic.”
Biber said five systems have been built and deployed as gateways on small LANs providing an access gateway to the IPv6 world. One possible business application of end-to-end IPv6 connectivity between locations is the ability to do remote support on individual machines without the need for a VPN.
To do the integration work the project contracted independent developer Bart Steanes, who told Computerworld all GNU GPL software was used and no development required.
“It’s low cost, readily available, and has the functionality required,” Steanes said, adding the distribution took a few weeks and is being used on low-power VIA servers.
“IPv6 gives visibility of all devices as though they are on a LAN but across the WAN, but you need an appropriately configured firewall. We use Shorewall. This obsoletes the need for a VPN which does reduce complexity, but it’s also a learning experience for people as IPv6 is a new addressing scheme.”
Steanes said the system supports native encryption and “does make life easier”, but the usual link bandwidth constraints still apply.
The IPV6 for e-business project, online at http://www.ipv6.org.au, which was completed earlier this month, is now seeking another round of funding in the order of $150,000 from industry or government to take it through to the next level.
Biber said so far the project has been quite successful with a “steady increase” in the number of visitors to the site and more dialogue with industry and government organizations.
