A study of traffic from the perspective of a large pure IPv6 ISP

Our understanding of IPv6 traffic cannot keep up with the growth of IPv6 traffic. Unraveling the characteristics of traffic is essential for network scale expansion, network technology selection, network management and security enhancement. In this paper, we conduct a comprehensive study of IPv6 traffic based on the packet-level traces of a nation-wide pure IPv6 network - CERNET2, and track user behaviors in 6TUNET, one of the largest campus network in CERNET2, by binding IP address with user name. We first analyze the usage and development of IPv6 network, especially user behaviors and new technologies, e.g. the efficiency of fine-grained source address validation technology which is widely deployed in CERNET2. Then we investigate the distribution of the aggregate traffic and the results reveal that traffic distribution is highly skewed among protocols, ports, applications and hosts. We pay particular attention to dominating protocols, ports, applications and hosts, as well as special protocols of IPv6 network, e.g. the usage of extension headers, which supplement the simplified basic header of IPv6. At last, we model the skewness in traffic distribution and present the dynamics of the traffic from the aspects of traffic prediction and inference. Based on the analysis, we obtain a comprehensive knowledge of IPv6 traffic which, we believe, can provide an experimental basis for IPv6 network operators and researchers.

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