Project Title:
Building a Philippine IPv6 Research Network

Recipient Institution:

Project Leader: Denis F. Villorente

Amount and Duration: USD $ 8,990 / 9 months

The Philippine research community is undergoing a significant metamorphosis. The Department of Science and Technology through the Advanced Science and Technology Institute are setting up a nationwide broadband research network. In many parts of the world, research networks are continually built and upgraded to provide an information infrastructure catered to universities and research institutions. They provide an incubator for development of next generation technologies and applications, and transit to other research networks for collaboration and information sharing. However, this is the first in the country. The PREGINET (Philippine Research, Education, and Government Information Network) Project is aimed at encouraging collaborative research and development among government research institutes, the academe, and the private sector. With PREGINET, the exchange of research and development (R&D) experience and activities locally and internationally will be enhanced. Priority applications identified to run over PREGINET include network technologies, distance education, telemedicine, agriculture, and disaster mitigation.

IPv6 is a next generation protocol of the Internet. It is one area that drives research in PREGINET at ASTI. IPv6 addresses a number of problems in IPv4 but sustains its good features and practices. IPv6 boasts of features such as expanded addressing capabilities, header format simplification, improved support for extensions and options, flow labeling capability, authentication and privacy capabilities.

The project will initiate IPv6 research and deployment in the Philippines among schools. Two to three universities will be tapped from the list of PREGINET partners, one for each major island in the archipelago (i.e. Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao). The basis of choosing the schools will be on their expressed interest on the subject. From these schools and ASTI, the IPv6 community in the Philippines is seen to grow. Hopefully, it will be able to provide a success story for IPv6 deployment in the Philippines.

The project will set up IPv6 test beds in the identified schools. Familiarization with the protocol will be needed. ASTI keeps record of its research in IPv6 online and will assist in this endeavour. Once the test beds are in place, actual testing, research, and implementation will be done. Because ASTI is a part of AI3 and AI3 is part of 6BONE, these test beds will be connected to 6Bone.

The project will also explore, and will probably make use of, IPv6 transition mechanisms. Because of the diverse operating environments in the Internet and possibly also in these schools, different solutions will exist but the number of solutions is guaranteed to be finite. The scenarios will be similar in most schools and the experiences gained in testing and choosing specific transition mechanisms will guide other schools when they decide to deploy or test IPv6 in their own networks. Results will be published through the web or through a technical paper for submission in a conference or meeting by the participants themselves.

The project will initiate and support activities leading to IPv6 advocacy and awareness between schools and the private sector. Among the subjects to be tackled are proper IPv6 address allocations and assignments, routing, and application implementation and development. One long-term benefit this project will help realize is when these schools include IPv6 in their TCP/IP and Networking courses and they will be able to demonstrate it.

Recognizing the fact that various IPv6 researches are undertaken globally, the project will build on these information. The Project will seek to enhance its know-how also through attendance to conferences and workshops to be able to share experiences and interact with researchers and network engineers also doing IPv6 research and deployment work.

Ultimately, the project will act as a precursor to a more large-scale IPv6 adoption and deployment in the Philippines.

Methodology

First, an invitation will be posted to the PREGINET partners mailing list before the start of the Project itself. The Mindanao State University – Iligan Institute of Technology has already expressed interest in doing research in IPv6 and collaborating with the IPv6 group of ASTI. No such collaboration exists yet. MSU-IIT is a PREGINET partner. In the case that more than 3 would like to join, the first three will be selected such that one school each will represent Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, the three major islands of the country. The rest can join after June 2003 but will be kept up-to-date for the duration of the Project so that they may opt to start their own transition or deployment. Whenever they need assistance, the ASTI IPv6 group will provide it even if minimal. Limiting the schools initially to three will effectively carry out the objectives of the Project.

Each school will be asked to identify a Site Project Manager (SPM) to coordinate the IPv6 activities in their area. They will be responsible in administrating and managing the test beds together with 1 or 2 research student assistants. The SPM will submit monthly reports and updates.

A maximum of 2 computers will be placed on each site to be provided by the Project to ensure operation. One of these will act as a router. The Project will make use of open-source software for the operating systems and some applications that will be run on the hardware.

The Project will be divided into these stages:

Stage 1: Planning and Data Gathering.

This involves technical intelligence and familiarization with the standard (i.e. IPv6 Specification, rfc2460), including the other standards that support IPv6 (i.e. ICMPv6, ND) in the forms of drafts or rfcs (request for comment).

Stage 2: Preliminary Literature Review and Training.

This will coincide with a planned IPv6 Training and Workshop for Telcos and ISPs in the Philippines by ASTI. The participants will be asked to join the hands-on training.

Stage 3: Design and Setting Up of Test Bed

Stage 4: Initial Evaluation of Setup.

This involves answering questions such as: What can be done with the test bed? What problems and Difficulties were encountered? How can these be overcome and what are the solutions? This will also be scheduled in time for the APRICOT conference.

Stage 5: Explore Transition Mechanisms and Identified Research Areas in Stage 4

Stage 6: Second Evaluation and Writing of Interim Final Report

Stage 7: Accomplish Final Report or Paper

Project Beneficiaries

The intended beneficiaries in this project are 1.) The schools that will be participating for the training and capability building acquired in the duration of the project, 2.) The faculty (SPM) that will assist and help build the test bed, which will be an added component in their laboratory to expand their research areas. 3.) The students for an actual “research playground” to do hands-on testing and research on IPv6. 4.) The Philippine Internet in general - to allow the diffusion of IPv6 into the Philippines.

Project Sustainability

Since the schools that will participate in this project are PREGINET partners, sustainability is assured by the existence of the network. The expansion of the Project will depend on the results of this experiment or a new funding will be sought if it is successful.

Project Outputs
The more tangible outputs of the project are:

1. Papers to at least two conferences or meetings.

2. Online documentation of technical details and creation of HowTos.

3. A final research report on the experiences and and recommendations on universal access strategies and policies.

Schedule

Monitoring

The Project monitoring will be realized by submission of monthly reports of each school’s accomplishments, difficulties encountered, and lessons learned to facilitate feedback.

Read the Abstract of Project
Read the Interim Technical Report