[techtalk] Anycast on IPV6

[Jenn V.]

cmcanally at ticnet.com wrote:
> 
> This isn't very Linux specific, actually it has nothing to do with Linux at
> all.  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?

Stared at the IETF drafts section. Gah. How the hell do you find 
anything in there?

Quote from RFC 1883 (or 2460, for that matter):

  	 And a new type
         of address called an "anycast address" is defined, used to send
         a packet to any one of a group of nodes.


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

But a lot of the work has been done. 

Linux supports it. Apache has patches which do, but that currently conflict 
with virtual hosting. Squid does. SSH does. Perl doesn't yet.
There are mailservers, FTP software, and all sorts of other things
which have IPV6 built in.

It'll probably be a lot more deployed once Apache supports it 
properly. 

It might take till M$ does - but OTOH, maybe we tech-types could
all slip over to the IPV6 network and leave the commercial crud
on the 'old' internet....



Jenn V.
-- 
  "We're repairing the coolant loop of a nuclear fusion reactor. 
   This is women's work!"
		Helix, Freefall. http://www.purrsia.com/freefall/

Jenn Vesperman    jenn at simegen.com     http://www.simegen.com/~jenn