"Using Mobility Support for Request-Routing in IPv6 CDNs"

Arup Acharya and Anees Shaikh

Content distribution networks have become widespread in the current IPv4-based Internet, and request-routing in CDNs today are primarily based on DNS mechanisms. This paper considers request-routing in CDNs as and when IPv6 networks begin to be deployed. Unlike IPv4, IPv6 includes explicit support for host mobility. That is, the functionality and mechanisms of a separate protocol, such as mobile IP (in IPv4), is part of the IPv6 protocol definition. In this paper, we demonstrate that packet routing to and from mobile hosts has a strong conceptual similarity with wide-area request routing in CDNs. We then present schemes where different variations of request routing in IPv6 based CDNs are all accomplished via the same IPv6 mechanisms that are used to support mobility. These schemes will eliminate the need for a separate infrastructure, like the DNS, to perform request-routing in IPv6 CDNs.