Updated Text for the 6bone What is It?

[bound@zk3.dec.com]

I added Brian's comments and made 6bone use small caps to go with our
strategy of demphasis on the name...

If all are OK with this we can declare victory and move forward...

/jim


What is the 6bone?

The 6bone is an independent outgrowth of the IETF IPng project that 
resulted in the creation of the IPv6 protocols intended eventually to
replace the current Internet network layer protocols known as IPv4.  
The 6bone is currently an informal collaborative project covering 
North America, Europe, and Japan.

One essential part in the IPv4 to IPv6 transition is the development 
of an Internet-wide IPv6 backbone infrastructure that can transport IPv6 
packets.  As with the existing IPv4 Internet backbone, the IPv6 
backbone infrastructure will be composed of many Internet Service 
Providers (ISPs) and user networks linked together to provide the 
world-wide Internet.

Until the IPv6 protocols are widely implemented and fully tested for
interoperability, production ISP and user network routers will not
readily place production Internet (IPv4) routers at risk.  Thus a way
is needed to provide Internet-wide IPv6 transport in an organized and
orderly way for early testing and early use.  

The 6bone is a virtual network layered on top of portions of the
physical IPv4-based Internet to support routing of IPv6 packets, as
that function has not yet been integrated into many production 
routers.  The network is composed of islands that can directly support 
IPv6 packets, linked by virtual point-to-point links called "tunnels".  
The tunnel endpoints are typically workstation-class machines having
operating system support for IPv6.

Over time, as confidence builds to allow production routers to carry
native IPv6 packets, it is expected that the 6bone would disappear by
agreement of all parties.  It would be replaced in a transparent way 
by production ISP and user network IPv6 Internet-wide transport.

The 6bone is thus focused on providing the early policy and procedures
necessary to provide IPv6 transport in a reasonable fashion so testing
and experience can be carried out.  It would not attempt to provide 
new network interconnect architectures, procedures and policies that 
are clearly the purview of ISP and user network operators.  In fact, 
it is the desire to include as many ISP and user network operators in 
the 6bone process as possible to guarantee a seamless transition to 
IPv6.