VNET6: IPv6 virtual network for the collaboration between applications and networks

The scarcity of IPv4 makes IPv6 deployment critical for all network-based applications. However, the big issue of IPv6 is that we lack real applications that are based on IPv6. The application demands for flexibility, availability and management are hard to be met by the current network. Hence, it has become extremely urgent how IPv6 network can be tailored to meet the application specified requirements. In order to address the need, we propose IPv6 virtual network architecture (VNET6) to help to accelerate the momentum of IPv6 deployment. VNET6 differs from other proposed architectures. It supports incremental network evolution with the virtual collaboration environment, which has distinct features including flexible service provision, reliable service entity, end-to-end flow management and ubiquitous access. The collaboration mode provides the bidirectional interaction between applications and networks via intent-based interfaces. IPv6 provides feasibility for the deployment of the virtual environment and the IPv6 critical protocols are employed in VNET6. Our initial prototype study and comparative analysis demonstrate that VNET6 can be adapted to meet the specific application requirements.