Using IPv6 and DNS to implement a new addressing architecture for the Internet#

Saleem Bhatti, University of St Andrews, UK

• Why: A follow-up born from RIPE 92 attendee demand: the identifier/locator split is a decades-old idea whose time may be coming back, and this is a working IPv6-native implementation rather than a position paper.
• What: ILNP (Identifier Locator Network Protocol) — the "Why/What/How" of splitting the IP address's semantic overload into an Identifier (node identity, DNS-published) and a Locator (network location), reducing global routing state, enabling multihoming, multipath and mobility without extra machinery, and improving privacy. Unlike LISP, HIP and SHIM6, it does not overload the IP address semantics. It runs across today's IPv6 infrastructure and is backwards-compatible with IPv6 applications.
• How: Locators and identifiers as new addressing data types bound dynamically to protocol-stack objects, with DNS supplying the mapping; a FreeBSD implementation is ongoing (with ICANN Grant Program support) and the talk covers what works across today's Internet — protocol, routing, API and naming compatibility.
• Where applicable: Research and standards exploration, not deployment — but relevant to anyone designing the next iteration of DC addressing, mobility, or identity-adjacent network architecture.