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How IPv6 is helping in the search for dark matter – and why that’s important to UK research and education

Tim Chown
by
Tim Chown

The world is moving to a new internet communications standard: IPv6.

To work colleagues use their desktop computers.

What does that mean for the UK research and education sector, and why does it matter? 

And why is the world’s largest distributed research experiment increasingly using IPv6?    

The world is running out of IP addresses  

There are billions of devices connected to the internet worldwide: computers, phones, TVs, watches, cars and so on. And that number is growing at a huge rate, fuelled by IoT - the internet of things - that adds a plethora of sensors in smart homes, smart campuses and smart cities.  

Each internet-connected device links to the global network using an internet protocol (IP) address – a unique number that identifies it and allows other network devices to route traffic to or from it across the network. 

The problem is that the present internet addressing system, IPv4, only has capacity for about 4.2 billion addresses – all of which have already been allocated.

The problem is that the present internet addressing system, IPv4, only has capacity for about 4.2 billion addresses – all of which have already been allocated. Even with the IPv4 address-sharing techniques that have evolved, that’s not enough for the increasing number of new devices, in particular those that need to be directly addressable. 

IPv6 was specifically developed to solve this problem: it will allow (approximately) 340 trillion trillion trillion unique IP addresses.  

The world is moving towards IPv6  

While IPv6 won’t supplant IPv4 straight away, the move is gaining momentum.  

Already, more than 35% of UK network traffic is IPv6. Content providers such as Google, Facebook and Netflix are all available over IPv6, mobile networks are moving towards IPv6 only, and most people – although they probably don’t know it - have devices that are IPv6-enabled. 

UK research and education needs to catch up 

While 60% of Jisc members have shown some interest in IPv6 and received an IPv6 address assignment, currently Jisc’s Janet Network sees only about 10% of its traffic running over IPv6.  

Clearly, UK research and education are not yet embracing this new standard at the same rate as commercial networks.  

So, what’s the problem?  

While the two protocols can run over the same network infrastructure and be used by the same applications, direct communication between IPv4 and IPv6 is not possible.  

The challenge is to introduce IPv6 capability in a timely way while ensuring that existing services continue to be accessible using IPv4. The commonly adopted solution for this is to run both protocols alongside each other in a mode known as dual stack. Applications can then take advantage of IPv6 where it is available. 

A phased approach is often the best solution 

The Janet Network backbone is fully enabled for IPv6: it’s dual stack throughout, and IPv6 is included free-of-charge as part of Jisc’s Janet IP connection service.

All a Janet-connected site needs to do is turn on IPv6 support internally and start using the protocol.

All a Janet-connected site needs to do is turn on IPv6 support internally and start using the protocol.  

Janet-connected organisations are tending to opt for a phased approach to the transition. This typically entails first adding IPv6 on public-facing services and then following an incremental dual stack deployment across their campus – starting, for example, by enabling researchers and students in their computer science department. 

A great demonstrator of this approach is the demanding work currently being carried out by Imperial College London, which uses dual-stacked IPv4/IPv6 throughout most of its on-campus infrastructure. 

IPv6 and the search for dark matter 

The high energy physics (HEP) group at Imperial College is part of the Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid (WLCG), which was developed to handle the prodigious volume of data produced by CERN’s LHC experiments. It combines about 1.4 million computer cores and 1.5 exabytes of storage at over 170 sites in 42 countries to form a massively distributed computing infrastructure that provides more than 12,000 physicists around the world with near real-time access to LHC data, and the power to process it. 

Imperial College HEP Group is participating in two of CERN’s nine LHC experiments, which range from studying the ‘standard model’ (including the Higgs boson) to searching for extra dimensions and particles that could make up dark matter. 

To ensure that data transfer to and from the LHC experiments at CERN is as rapid and scalable as possible over the Janet Network, Imperial College has been moving away from IPv4 using the dual stack approach.

To ensure that data transfer to and from the LHC experiments at CERN is as rapid and scalable as possible over the Janet Network, Imperial College has been moving away from IPv4 using the dual stack approach. 

And the objective to run IPv6-only in the future is fast becoming reality: at the end of March 2022, there were periods when 100% of the traffic coming from the LHC’s open network environment to Imperial College via Janet was over IPv6.  With around 90% of the WLCG storage now IPv6-enabled, the potential to turn off IPv4 is growing nearer. 

And why all this matters to UK research and education  

Of course, most colleges and universities will not require quite the same levels of data transfer as the CERN experiment sites, but the knowledge that this is happening right now should give institutions the confidence to adopt a similar phased approach based on the proven capability of both IPv6 and the Janet Network. 

Find out more about Jisc’s IPv6 services

About the author

Tim Chown
Tim Chown
Network development manager

I am responsible for developing and promoting new network-oriented services. Currently, my main focus lies with being a work package leader on the GÉANT GN4-3 project, which provides connectivity between European national research and education networks (NRENs) such as Janet, and evaluates new technologies and develops new services to run over that network, everything from perfSONAR network monitoring to quantum key distribution (QKD).

My main work within Jisc is helping members make optimal use of their Janet connectivity for network-intensive applications, as part of Jisc's end-to-end performance initiative.