History of the IPng Effort

The IPng protocol represents the evolution of many different IETF proposals and working groups focused on developing an IPng. It represents over three years of effort focused on this topic. A brief history follows:

By the Winter of 1992 the Internet community had developed four separate proposals for IPng. These were "CNAT", "IP Encaps", "Nimrod", and "Simple CLNP". By December 1992 three more proposals followed; "The P Internet Protocol" (PIP), "The Simple Internet Protocol" (SIP) and "TP/IX". In the Spring of 1992 the "Simple CLNP" evolved into "TCP and UDP with Bigger Addresses" (TUBA) and "IP Encaps" evolved into "IP Address Encapsulation" (IPAE).

By the fall of 1993, IPAE merged with SIP while still maintaining the name SIP. This group later merged with PIP and the resulting working group called themselves "Simple Internet Protocol Plus" (SIPP). At about the same time the TP/IX Working Group changed its name to "Common Architecture for the Internet" (CATNIP).

The IPng area directors made a recommendation for an IPng in July of 1994. This recommendation includes the following elements:

• Current address assignment policies are adequate.
• There is no current need to reclaim underutilized assigned network numbers.
• There is no current need to renumber major portions of the Internet.
• CIDR-style assignments of parts of unassigned Class A address space should be considered.
• "Simple Internet Protocol Plus (SIPP) Spec. (128 bit ver)" [SIPP] be adopted as the basis for IPng.
• The documents listed in Appendix C be the foundation of the IPng effort.
• An IPng Working Group be formed, chaired by Steve Deering and Ross Callon.
• Robert Hinden be the document editor for the IPng effort.
• An IPng Reviewer be appointed and that Dave Clark be the reviewer.
• An Address Autoconfiguration Working Group be formed, chaired by Dave Katz and Sue Thomson.
• An IPng Transition Working Group be formed, chaired by Bob Gilligan and TBA.
• The Transition and Coexistence Including Testing Working Group be chartered.
• Recommendations about the use of non-IPv6 addresses in IPv6 environments and IPv6 addresses in non-IPv6 environments be developed.
• The IESG commission a review of all IETF standards documents for IPng implications.
• The IESG task current IETF working groups to take IPng into account.
• The IESG charter new working groups where needed to revise old standards documents.
• Informational RFCs be solicited or developed describing a few specific IPng APIs.
• The IPng Area and Area Directorate continue until main documents are offered as Proposed Standards in late 1994.
• Support for the Authentication Header be required.
• Support for a specific authentication algorithm be required.
• Support for the Privacy Header be required.
• Support for a specific privacy algorithm be required.
• An "IPng framework for firewalls" be developed.

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