A transparent solution for legacy applications between heterogeneous networks

Legacy applications are the huge existing IPv4-based network applications. It is a critical subject to maintain them availability during IPv6 transition period. However they could run properly neither in IPv6-only networks nor between IPv6/IPv4 heterogeneous networks. That has resulted in the limitation of the widespread adoption of IPv6. To deal with this problem, we propose a novel framework called 4644 with two new mechanisms (i.e. API Adapter and Address Control Protocol). In 4644, end users are able to run seamlessly their legacy applications over IPv6-only network as usual and the legacy applications can interoperate transparently with each other between heterogeneous networks without Application Level Gateway (ALG). We have implemented this prototype system with some legacy applications such as HTTP, Email, Telnet, FTP, QQ messenger and Skype. The implementation results have proved that 4644 enabled these applications to run well. 4644 has great potential as an IPv6 transition solution to speed up IPv6 and Internet development.