IPv6 network simulation tool

Abstract

Computer networks have revolutionised the way we use computers to communicate, whether it is for business, academia , entertainment or personal use. Many have embraced the Internet, the global network which connects all networks together, and it has become part of our daily routines - it would be hard to imagine a world without it. None of this would be possible without the underlying technologies and protocols that have helped to shape up computer networking to what it is today. Perhaps one of the most critical protocols is the Internet Protocol (IP), which provides both an addressing scheme by which nodes on a network may address each other, and a means by which data packets are transmitted and routed over different networks. Development of the IP protocol started back in the early eighties, and it was never expected that the protocol would come into such widespread use. In the early nineties, it was realised that the allocation of IP addresses was not sustainable for long and that the address space was being exhausted rapidly, thus setting in motion the development of a new protocol, IPv6. The IPv6 protocol aims not only to provide a much larger address space, but also to enhance the existing IP protocol and provide new functionality required by modern applications, such as mobility and better quality of service. In this dissertation, we study the IPv6 protocol and implement a graphical IPv6 simulation tool, which enables network designers, students and academics to construct computer networks and simulate scenarios pertaining to the protocol. The tool is also extensible to allow applications and other protocols to be implemented on top of the simulated IPv6 protocol, in order to simulate and understand their behaviour as well.