The 6QM project (IST- 2001-37611) started on the 1st of September 2002 and initially was due to finish on the 31st of August 2004. However, after a request from the project team, the original work plan was extended for four months until the 31st December 2004. The reviewers deemed necessary a second extension, and the project was extended an additional four months until de 30th April 2005.
The project goal was the research, development and integration of the different pieces needed for the correct measurement of the Quality of Service in IPv6 networks. In order to achieve this goal, a measurement device has been developed. This device inserts precise timestamp information when IPv6 packets are captured. A measurement server was also developed. This server collects the packets that were time-stamped by the measurement device and provide usage data and QoS metrics (delay, loss, jitter and so on). A demo was also developed, in order to show the potentiality of our system. It is worth to mention that our framework allows secure, inter-domain measurements, thanks to a new methodology purposely developed. To overcome the problem of measuring QoS data in Autonomous Systems not under the direct control of the initiator of the measurement, an XML file is sent over to AS being visited by the packet flow. The local device will then measure the QoS of its domain, and recursively send a modified XML file to the following AS, until the final destination is reached. All the developed components were integrated, and locally tested.
As part of the expected result from 6QM project, a knowledge base and a set of guidelines has been created, that could be exploited by operators and ISPs to meet the client demand in IPv6 advanced services with guaranteed and differentiated QoS. In particular, we refer to deliverables 1.5, "IPv6 QoS Measurement Guidelines for ISPs", and 2.9, "Guidelines for IPv6 measurement in home environment". Extensive dissemination and Linkage with other related Fora and Projects has been carried out, and allowing an outstanding progression in the standardization activities, in order to solve some remaining R&D issues and disseminate the project results.
The standardization activities can be considered a great success of this project, having in IETF 9 draft, of which 2 already in the final stage. All these operational results are supposed to be helpful in giving an answer to market expectations concerning the development of the New Generation Internet based on IPv6 technology with a strong constraint on QoS.