Welcome to the official IPv12 standard website
Network Working Group S. Sorrenti
Request for Comments: A001 SimpleMachines.it
Category: Experimental/Unofficial October 2024
Internet Protocol, Version 12 (IPv12) Specification:
Dual IPv6 Addressing Framework
Status of this Memo
This document specifies an experimental protocol for the Internet
community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements.
Being a payload-based extension of IPv6, IPv12 requires only
consenting hosts running compatible network stacks to be implemented.
These IPv12-compatible stacks maintain full backward compatibility
with IPv6 and IPv4, simply extending IPv6 capabilities with dual
addressing features.
Abstract
This document specifies version 12 of the Internet Protocol (IPv12),
introducing dual IPv6 addressing. Each system maintains an external
IPv6 address for global routing and an internal IPv6 address for
fine-grained addressing of hardware, software, and symbolic elements
within the system - from physical components to virtual world objects,
from application variables to process subsections. While originally
conceived for hyperspherical computing research, this dual addressing
benefits any computing system requiring unlimited granularity in
internal addressing capabilities.
1. Introduction
IPv12 implements dual IPv6 addressing where the primary address
handles global routing while the secondary address, carried in the
payload, enables internal addressing of both hardware and symbolic
elements within any computing system.
1.2. Universal Applicability
The dual addressing scheme benefits diverse computing environments
with unlimited granularity:
- Operating systems: direct addressing of processes, resources, and
their internal components
- Applications: direct addressing of variables, objects, and any
internal element requiring network visibility
- Virtual environments: addressing of objects, their components,
and their infinitesimal elements
- Datacenters: fine-grained resource management
- IoT devices: efficient internal addressing via ROHC compression
- Distributed systems: seamless hardware/software addressing
- Hyperspherical computing: Originally developed to provide each
computational element (monad, hypersphere, or mapping component)
in hyperspherical computers with its own IPv6 address, making it
globally visible on the Internet and fully participating in
unrestricted distributed computing. The IPv6 assignment in this
context is stored in HALF (Hyperdimensional Adaptive Lightning
Float) elements' optional memory cell, which can range from 32
bytes to several exabytes.
1.3. Implementation
IPv12 can be deployed between any consenting hosts without
infrastructure changes, enabling:
- Point-to-point adoption
- IPv4/IPv6 compatibility
- Scalable deployment
- Efficient compression via ROHC
1.4. Address Space Architecture
External IPv6:
- Global routing and connectivity
- Standard Internet infrastructure compatibility
Internal IPv6:
- Hardware space (25%): components, subsystems
- Symbolic space (75%):
* Variables and process elements
* Application components and subsections
* Virtual world objects and their elements
* Any atomic or composite element requiring network addressing
- Support for both traditional and experimental computing paradigms
- No theoretical limit to addressing granularity
1.5. Related Work
Different approaches have emerged to address the challenge of
direct application-level connectivity. XIA (eXpressive Internet
Architecture) proposes an innovative clean-slate redesign of network
architecture with rich addressing capabilities.
IPv12 takes a complementary approach focusing on simplicity:
- Leverages existing IPv6 infrastructure
- Operates on standard hardware
- Works with current GNU/Linux or POSIX kernels
- Achieves direct addressing through dual IPv6 mechanism
- Maintains full backward compatibility
- Enables gradual adoption
While XIA explores fundamental architectural innovations, IPv12
demonstrates how similar connectivity goals can be achieved through
minimal extensions to existing protocols.