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Overview

Open-IPv8-Lab is an experimental userspace toolkit implementing draft-thain-ipv8-02 — the Internet Protocol Version 8 specification.

Why IPv8? — Comparison with IPv4 and IPv6

IPv8 is not a successor to IPv6. It is an independent experimental protocol described in draft-thain-ipv8-02, designed around a fundamentally different addressing and routing philosophy.

IPv4 IPv6 IPv8
Address size 32-bit 128-bit 64-bit
Address format a.b.c.d xxxx:xxxx:…:xxxx ASN.a.b.c.d (ASN dot notation)
Address structure Flat / CIDR prefix Interface ID + prefix ASN routing prefix (32-bit) + host (32-bit)
Routing model BGP + IGP, flat RIB Same as IPv4 Two-tier: Tier 1 (inter-AS by ASN prefix) + Tier 2 (intra-AS by host)
Path metric AS-path length, MED Same as IPv4 Cost Factor (CF) — 7 components: RTT, jitter, loss, bandwidth, hops, policy, Haversine physics floor
NAT Widespread (NAT44) Discouraged XLATE8 — structured north-south translation with DNS validation
Service discovery DNS, mDNS DNS, NDP, SLAAC Zone Server — centralised OAuth8 + ACL8 + DHCP8 + DNS8 per AS
Host config DHCP SLAAC / DHCPv6 DHCP8 — single-response provisioning with all endpoints
Security at border ACL, uRPF ACL, IPsec Ingress filtering + NIC rate limits + RINE prefix protection + mandatory compliance tiers
Transition — 6to4, NAT64, DS-Lite 8to4 tunnelling — IPv8 inside IPv4 for legacy transit
Management SNMP, NetFlow Same SNMPv8 MIB, NetLog8 (SEC-ALERT, E3 traps), NetFlow8
Address exhaustion ~4.3 billion (exhausted) ~3.4 × 10³⁸ ~4.3 billion hosts per ASN × ~4.3 billion ASNs
IETF status Standard (RFC 791) Standard (RFC 8200) Experimental (draft-thain-ipv8-02)

Key architectural differences

  1. ASN-centric addressing — the network operator (ASN) is embedded directly in every address, eliminating the need for separate prefix allocation registries
  2. Mandatory Zone Server — every AS has a centralised authority for authentication (OAuth8), access control (ACL8), and host configuration (DHCP8) — security is built into the architecture, not bolted on
  3. Cost Factor routing — BGP8 uses a physics-aware 7-component metric instead of simple AS-path length, enabling quality-based path selection
  4. Structured NAT — XLATE8 replaces ad-hoc NAT with a defined translation model including DNS validation and even/odd load balancing
  5. Companion protocol suite — IPv8 ships with purpose-built replacements: ARP8, WHOIS8, NetLog8, WiFi8, Update8, rather than adapting IPv4-era protocols

Note: IPv8 is an experimental protocol for research and education. IPv6 is the production successor to IPv4 and remains the IETF standard for next-generation Internet addressing.

What it does

  • Parses and validates IPv8 64-bit addresses (ASN dot notation and full 8-octet format)
  • Classifies addresses: unicast, multicast, broadcast, RINE, internal zone, interop (Section 4)
  • Converts ASN values to 4-octet routing prefixes and back (Section 3.4)
  • Builds and parses spec-compliant 28-byte IPv8 packets (Section 5.1)
  • Two-tier routing: Tier 1 (ASN prefix) + Tier 2 (host n.n.n.n) (Section 8.7)
  • Virtual Routing and Forwarding with mandatory management/OOB VRFs (Section 8.8)
  • ICMPv8: Echo Request/Reply, Destination Unreachable, Time Exceeded, Redirect (Section 9)
  • Multicast classification with well-known group names (Sections 10–12)
  • 8to4 tunnelling: IPv8 packet encapsulation for IPv4-only transit (Section 13.3)
  • DNS A8 records with even/odd pair convention and RFC 1918 validation (Section 7)
  • Device compliance tier checking: Tier 1/2/3 (Sections 17.1–17.3)
  • PVRST spanning tree with Zone Server root election (Section 17.4)
  • NIC firmware rate limiting: broadcast, unauthenticated, authenticated (Section 17.5)
  • Border router ingress filtering: ASN spoofing, prefix protection (Section 18)
  • Cost Factor (CF) metric: 7-component path quality with Haversine physics floor (Section 1.6)
  • WHOIS8 mock resolver: ASN registration, route/destination validation
  • DHCP8 lease simulation: single-response provisioning with all service endpoints (Section 1.3)
  • Zone Server mock: OAuth8 JWT cache, ACL8 east-west access control (Sections 1.3, 1.4)
  • NetLog8 telemetry client: structured logging with SEC-ALERT and E3 traps (Section 18)
  • Companion spec modules: BGP8, OSPF8, IS-IS8, RINE, ARP8, XLATE8, Update8, WiFi8, SNMPv8
  • End-to-end integration scenario: DHCP8 → OAuth8 → ACL8 → routing in one lifecycle
  • Multi-zone simulation: Zone Server pairs with IBGP8-style inter-zone routing
  • BGP8 path selection with CF metric: per-prefix RIB, anomaly detection, failover
  • XLATE8 north-south traffic flow: DNS8 → XLATE8 → translation → ingress (Section 1.4)
  • PCAP export for Wireshark integration: PcapWriter, PcapReader, Lua dissector (DLT_USER0)
  • IPv8 packet fragmentation and reassembly: DF/MF flags, fragment offset, stateful Reassembler
  • Interactive CLI for Zone Server management (ipv8lab zone)
  • Traceroute8 diagnostic utility (ipv8lab traceroute)
  • NAT8 address translation gateway simulation (ipv8lab nat8)
  • NetFlow8 flow monitoring and telemetry export (ipv8lab netflow8)
  • QoS / traffic shaping based on TOS field (ipv8lab qos)
  • Docker-based multi-node testbed (ipv8lab docker)
  • TUI dashboard — Rich Live / Textual (ipv8lab tui)
  • Packet fuzzer for protocol security testing (ipv8lab fuzz)
  • mTLS / encryption layer for Zone Server authentication (ipv8lab mtls)
  • ARP8-driven version selection per Section 2 (ipv8lab arp8)
  • Inter-Company Interop and Two-XLATE8 model per Sections 4.6–4.7 (ipv8lab interop)
  • Interior Link Convention (222.0.0.0/8) per Section 4.10 (ipv8lab ilink)
  • Address Usage Model — consolidated address space table per Section 4.11 (ipv8lab usage)
  • Socket API Compatibility mock (AF_INET8, sockaddr_in8) per Section 6.2 (ipv8lab socket)
  • CGNAT Behaviour simulation per Section 15 (ipv8lab cgnat)
  • XLATE8 Even/Odd Load Balancing per Section 15.1 (ipv8lab xlate8lb)
  • Cloud Provider VPC simulation per Section 17 (ipv8lab vpc)
  • RINE Prefix Protection (100.x.x.x filtering) per Section 19.3 (ipv8lab rineprot)
  • Interior Link Convention Protection (222.0.0.0/8 BGP8 filtering) per Section 19.4 (ipv8lab ilinkprot)
  • /16 Minimum Prefix Enforcement at eBGP8 boundaries per Section 19.7 (ipv8lab prefixenf)
  • Standalone WHOIS8 protocol (draft-thain-whois8-00): server, client with cache, record signing (ipv8lab whois8)
  • Standalone NetLog8 protocol (draft-thain-netlog8-00): wire framing, collector, relay, rate limiting (ipv8lab netlog8proto)
  • Mesh network simulation, packet capture/replay, web dashboard, benchmarks, plugin system

What it does NOT do

  • Does not modify the Linux kernel or network stack
  • Does not require raw sockets or root access
  • Is not production networking software
  • Does not claim official IETF endorsement

Design principles

  1. Spec-driven — every module maps to a section in draft-thain-ipv8-02
  2. Userspace only — everything runs as a normal user process
  3. Tested — 1827 tests covering all implemented sections
  4. Extensible — plugin system for custom protocol experiments
  5. Safe — no system modifications, no privilege escalation