Research on Topology Discovery for IPv6 Networks

With some new features introduced by IPv6 network, such as a wider address space, a different scope based on addressing scheme, a modified protocol field and so on, IPv6 topology discovery faces some challenging problems. And many of topology discovery algorithms developed to collect IPv4 network topology information can not be readily applied to IPv6 network. In this paper, a few problems generated by IPv6 network, some methods and algorithms for IPv6 network topology discovery are discussed in detail. Their advantages and disadvantages are fully summarized. Finally, the new problems and some suggestions for the research work are put forward.