Providing End-to-End Connectivity Across Heterogeneous Networks

The incremental adoption of IPv6, middle boxes (e.g., NATs, Firewalls) as well as completely new network types and protocols plot a possible future of the Internet: Manifold networks (e.g. IPv4, IPv6, Industrial Ethernet, sensor networks), which are not supposed or able to communicate directly. To allow communication between these networks, relays --- devices located in multiple networks that behave like gateways --- are required. These relays translate between multiple network domains (e.g., IPv4/IPv6 domain) and provide the necessary end-to-end connectivity. In this scenario it is likely that a message has to traverse multiple domains. To find a relay path to another device and allow end-to-end communication, the following issues need to be addressed: (1) detection of domain borders, (2) finding appropriate relay paths, (3) managing relays. We propose a solution towards these problems for the Spontaneous Virtual Networks Project (SpoVNet) based on virtual coordinates.