Done by
TAHI Project
Linux IPv6 Users Group JP
USAGI Project
WIDE Project, V6 Working Group

• Summary
• Results of Linux IPv6 implementation
• Results of KAME IPv6 implementation
• Comparison Linux and KAME

As of September 22, 2000, The release of Linux-2.4.0 kernel is imminent. Some of new features are introduced into the kernel and the performance of SMP is improved. Regarding IPv6 protocol stack, sin6_scope_id field is introduced and some function are improved.

In spite of some improvement, it still has many problems such as below.

• It is not in compliance with latest RFCs.
• Some functions are missing.
• Some functions are miss-implemented.
• Because the kernel and libc are developped separately, they have inconsistent each other.

As a result, we think that the IPv6 implementation of Linux is inferior to other ones. In order to make a guideline to improve the implementations, we decide to ask TAHI project for checking IPv6 conformance of the Linux kernel. After checking Linux IPv6 implementation, we try to compare it and KAME implementation which is highly evaluated as a referential IPv6 implementation.

We publish the results because we want to show the reason for improving Linux implementation officially and make a guideline for improving it.

Target Info

• Kernel 2.2.15
• glibc 2.1.2

Host Test

The result of checking functions as a IPv6 host, such as ICMPv6, NDP, autoconfiguration and so on. There are many failed items in NDP and autoconfiguration sections which are fundamental functions for IPv6 specs.

• IPv6 Specification
  Checked items: 35, Succeeded: 33, Failed: 2, Success rate: 94%
• ICMPv6 for IPv6 Specification
  Checked items: 16, Succeeded: 16, Failed: 0, Success rate: 100%
• Neighbor Discovery
  Checked items: 58, Succeeded: 20, Failed: 38, Success rate: 34%
• IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration
  Checked items: 57, Succeeded: 2, Failed: 55, Success rate: 4%
• IPv6 Path MTU Discovery
  Checked items: 4, Succeeded: 2, Failed: 2, Success rate: 50%
• IPSec AH and ESP for IPv6
  Checked items: 61, Succeeded: 1, Failed: 60, Success rate: 0%
• IPSec AH and ESP for IPv4
  Not tested.
• IPv6 over IPv4 Tunnel
  Checked items: 4, Succeeded: 4, Failed: 0, Success rate: 100%
• Robustness
  Checked items: 4, Succeeded: 4, Failed: 0, Success rate: 100%

Target Info

• KAME Stable-20000704 on FreeBSD 3.4
• Host

Host Test

In order to compare with Linux implementation, we show the result of KAME implementation, which is already evaluated as a referential IPv6 implementation. The KAME implementation has passed almost all items. Please check the success rate of KAME implementation and Linux one.

• IPv6 Specification
  Checked items: 35, Succeeded: 35, Failed: 0, Success rate: 100%
• ICMPv6 for IPv6 Specification
  Checked items: 16, Succeeded: 16, Failed: 0, Success rate: 100%
• Neighbor Discovery
  Checked items: 58, Succeeded: 56, Failed: 2, Success rate: 97%
• IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration
  Checked items: 57, Succeeded: 56, Failed: 1, Success rate: 98%
• IPv6 Path MTU Discovery
  Checked items: 4, Succeeded: 3, Failed: 1, Success rate: 75%
• IPSec AH and ESP for IPv6
  Checked items: 61, Succeeded: 61, Failed: 0, Success rate: 100%
• IPSec AH and ESP for IPv4
  Checked items: 49, Succeeded: 48, Failed: 1, Success rate: 98%
• IPv6 over IPv4 Tunnel
  Checked items: 4, Succeeded: 2, Failed: 2, Success rate: 50%
• Robustness
  Checked items: 4, Succeeded: 4, Failed: 0, Success rate: 100%