[techtalk] Anycast on IPV6

[Fan, Laurel]

cmcanally at ticnet.com said:
> I've been reviewing the IPV6 specs (the 128 bit address space
> proposed to replace the current 32bit IPV4 addresses), and I 
> can't figure
> out what the anycast field in the IPV6 header is for.  Does 
> anyone know?

I'm not familiar with the guts of ipv6, but I've read a few RFCs that
describe anycasting (search for anycast or anycasting with your favorite
rfc access method), which is essentially like multicast, except instead
of sending to all hosts, it sends to any one of them.

> Perhaps a more interesting question is, "Does anyone care 
> since IPV6 is still undeployed?"

It is deployed if you look hard enough. I've heard of people playing Quake
over the 6bone. (Is it just me, or is Quake possibly the world's most
ported piece of software?)