Computer Science Honours Year Project for Andrew Swan, School of Computer Science and Digital Media, Robert Gordon University, May 2020
The introduction of IPv6 into the computer networking world has caused much speculation about the future and push for the adoption of newer internet technologies, adapted for the ever-widening landscape of internet-capable devices. The internet cannot transition overnight though. Transition/translation solutions have had to be developed to handle the transition period.
Many ISPs today are operating with Dual-Stack network equipment, [27] allowing for the processing of IPv4 and IPv6 traffic simultaneously. This is just another indication that the current period is a period of transition between these protocols. The problem creeps in with older computer networks: internal business domains, corporate intranets, school and education LANS. Many of these networks use legacy network hardware and are not dual-stack capable. For these networks, methods of translation are needed. That solution is the focus of this project.
This project’s artefact is an application that operates on the Application Layer and works with data on the Network Layer, translating IPv6 data packets into IPv4 data packets so that IPv6 data can be sent over legacy networks to these new IPv6 devices.