There’s more to IPv6 than just more IP addresses

With IPv4 unable to scale up in proportion to the rapid growth in Internet and wireless enabled devices, the decks have been cleared for the adoption of IPv6, the latest kid on the block. Chandan Mendiratta analyses the technology and finds there is more to it than just more IP addresses. He points out that the technology has the potential to fuel the growth of India’s Internet economy

Picture this: you are not able to log on because your computer says ‘Sorry, all IP addresses are now being used!!!’ So what does one do in circumstances like these? Right now, nothing. With the rapid growth of the Internet and proliferation of wireless devices that require unique IP addresses, IPv4 is beginning to show its age.

The distant rumbling of the next-generation IP protocol ’version 6’ is growing louder. IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6), is the ‘next generation’ protocol designed by the IETF to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IP Version 4 (IPv4) and is now being positioned as the antidote to the problem of shortage of IP addresses.

The catalyst in action!

The escalating demand for IP addresses has served as the main catalyst in the development of IPv6. It’s estimated that in the wireless arena alone, more than 1 billion mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and other wireless devices will require Internet access and each will need its own unique IP address. IPv6, as specified by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), most notably offers:

• Expanded IP addresses to accommodate widespread proliferation of Internet devices such as personal computers, personal digital assistants, wireless devices, and new Internet appliances.
• Expansion of the Internet throughout the world.
• Increasing use of ‘always on’ Internet access.
• Requirements for emerging Internet applications.

IPv6 also provides integrated auto-configuration for plug-and play capabilities, enhanced mobility, and end-to-end security.

Is it a killer app?

The question isn’t ‘if’ but rather ‘when’ will the world migrate to IP protocol version 6 (IPv6). With an exponentially increasing demand for IP addresses, the world is outgrowing IPv4. Billions of new, always-on Internet appliances for the home from the TV to the refrigerator and utility meter will be connected through various technologies, and each of these devices will require its own IP address.

The need for more addresses is compounded by the fact that addresses have not been distributed evenly worldwide. Although IPv4 theoretically can support as many as 4 billion unique addresses, the actual allocation of space has locked up nearly 75 percent of these addresses. In contrast to IPv4, which has 32 bits of address space, IPv6 has 128 bits of address space, pushing the theoretical limit of unique IPv6 nodes to roughly 3.4 x 1038 or about 340 billion billion billion billion unique addresses.

Deploying IPv6 and its benefits

A wide range of techniques have been identified and implemented, basically falling into three categories:

• Dual Stack Techniques, to allow IPv4 and IPv6 to co-exist in the same devices and networks
• Tunnelling Techniques, to avoid order dependencies when upgrading hosts, routers and regions
• Translation Techniques, to allow IPv6-only devices to communicate with IPv4 only devices.

Expanded addressing is not the only benefit of IPv6. Other benefits include:

• IPv6’s auto configuration feature or autodiscovery will eliminate the labour-intensive and costly approach to administration of Dynamic Host Control Protocol (DHCP) servers that most large organisations use to manage their IPv4 addresses.
• IPv6 uses a ‘stateless autoconfiguration’ that combines an interface ID number, such as the machine’s existing MAC address, and a network prefix from the local router to assign its IP address instead of one allocated by the DHCP server.
• IPv6 will also provide a peer-to-peer applications architecture that will allow for a global, end-to-end addressing scheme. This setup will eliminate the need for Network Address Translation (NAT) devices at the edge of some large enterprise networks, which can slow down the encryption process and are inefficient for applications such as Voice over IP, mobile IP, and distributed gaming.

What would it mean to India?

IPv6 will emerge as one of the most extremely critical success factors for growth of IT in India. Currently, on IPv4, India has only three ranges of Class B network address families. Each Class B network can have 255 X 255 (= 65025) IP addresses, which means that India today has a total of only about 2 lakh IP addresses. This is one of the biggest constraints to the adoption of intelligent IP based network applications and devices within the country. Currently, the existing network users share these IP addresses.

Further, IPv4 based addresses have proven difficult to get allotted, as there is a severe shortage internationally. Therefore, it is critical for India and other developing countries to move to the IPv6 platform, simply because IPv4 chokes the possibilities and potential for the growth of the Internet in India.

Secondly, India has software and engineering capabilities that are recognised across the world. IPv6 is the ideal standard for Indians to start developing applications and services for, since even if the standard is adopted internationally, its growth will be restrained by the ability of companies to provide applications based on this standard.

After years of early testing and limited deployment, movement toward IPv6 is gaining momentum. The ultimate beauty of IPv6 is that it will bring us back to an end-to-end, global addressing architecture, but the transition to IPv6 will be slow and measured. Therefore, it is critical for India to consider IPv6 since both as a market as well as a development centre, the standard holds tremendous potential to fuel the growth of India’s Internet economy.

New technologies advance the field of Image Processing

We are in the midst of a revolution sparked by rapid progress in digital image processing technology. Hareish Gur explains the nuances of Image Processing and looks at the range of applications in which the technology is being deployed

Image Processing is considered to be one of the most rapidly evolving areas of information technology today, with growing applications in all areas of business. This technology holds the possibility of developing the ultimate machine in the future that would be able to perform the visual functions of human beings. It also forms a core area of research within the computer science and engineering disciplines at most of the top universities and institutes in the US and other developed countries. As such, it forms the basis for all kinds of future visual automation.

Image Processing deals with images which are two-dimensional entities (such as scanned office documents, x-ray films, satellite pictures, etc) captured electronically through a scanner or camera system that digitises the spatially continuous coordinates to a sequence of 0’s and 1’s. A digital image is a mapping from the real three-dimensional world to a set of two-dimensional discrete points. Each of these spatially distinct points, holds a number that denotes grey level or colour for it, and can be conveniently fed to a digital computer for processing. Here, processing essentially means algorithmic enhancement, manipulation, or analysis (also understanding or recognition) of the digital image data. Every image processing technique or algorithm takes an input, an image or a sequence of images and produces an output, which may be a modified image and/or a description of the input image contents.

For example, if we give as input, a person’s photograph, an image processing system could return his or her name and whether or not that person is wearing glasses or a necktie. Since a digital computer is used in the process rather than an analogue one, this branch of studies is also popularly known as Digital Image Processing.

Importance of image data

According to one estimate, more than 75 percent of all the information received by man is visual. Some researchers arguably consider this figure to be as high as 99 percent! Even if we consider the conservative estimate, the remaining four senses contribute to only 25 percent of the total share. And man has known this since ancient times. Probably that’s the reason why the ancient Chinese coined the now popular proverb, “A picture speaks a thousand words.” It is very evident that vision is a major source of information for human beings, and thus if we could possibly provide similar visual faculties to machines, we shall be able to achieve visual automation for a very broad range of applications.

Image Processing vs. Computer Graphics

There generally is a bit of confusion in recognising the difference between the fields of Image Processing and Computer Graphics, often even in the minds of tech-savvy computer professionals. Actually, Image Processing and Computer Graphics are entirely different, almost the opposite of each other. A computer graphics system is involved with image synthesis, and not recognition or analysis, as in the case of Image Processing. The input of a computer graphics system consists of an item list that describes a scene and its purpose is to transform this list into a digital image, which could have been formed, if this scene would really exist. Morphing used in advertisements could be said to be the most commonly witnessed computer graphics technique. In contrast, input to an Image Processing system is always a real image formed via some physical phenomenon such as scanning, filming, etc. The main role of Image Processing is not to create information but to extract it, integrate it, make it explicit and usable.

Applications market

Broadly one can classify the applications areas into four categories: document and medical imaging, computer vision & industrial applications, remote sensing & space applications, and military applications.

From the IT industry viewpoint, Document and Medical imaging applications are the ones that have proliferated. According to an estimate, the international market for the first category alone is growing at about 25 percent CAGR (compounded annual growth rate), and is projected to be worth more than US$ 30 billion this year. The computer vision and industrial applications market is still in its nascent stage since common solutions cannot be applied across a varying range of industrial problems. The third category of remote sensing and space applications is mainly in the clutches of government departments or research organisations the world over, but it is definitely very heavily funded. NASA, ISRO and NRSA are a few of the organisations involved in this segment.

The last category of military and classified defence projects is the one for which the less said the better. Research work and finances of such projects are kept confidential and are anybody’s guess.

Coming back to the software perspective, for many years the computer industry has been promising that document imaging would solve a stack of paper-related ills. But little came of those promises, until the Internet began to change the dynamics of information. In today’s scenario, the benefits of electronically managing documents are not only surfacing but are also being widely accepted. Most business information resides on paper making documents one of the most highly valued assets of any business. Image processing technology leads to business applications such as Electronic Document Management System (EDMS), Workflow, etc, that manage data files and paper documents alike, to make the “paperless office” dream a reality. So, document and medical imaging are the most important applications of image processing technology as of now.

Office applications

EDMS in its most basic form, is just an archival-retrieval system. Archive and retrieval document image processing is concerned with simply replacing paper storage and filing by electronic movement of records. One could make freehand annotations or highlight a portion of a document electronically (just as could be done on paper), along with many other powerful tools for full-text searching, security and controlled sharing, etc. Users can achieve huge RoI on this through benefits such as reduced storage space cost, instant access to documents, reduced risks of lost or missing documents, and manpower reduction, thereby providing a cost-effective solution, as also increasing organisational efficiency.

Workflow solutions automate a business process, in whole or part, during which documents, information or tasks are passed from one participant (human or machine) to another for action, according to a set of procedural rules. Workflow automation adds the capability to interpret information contained within the documents rather than just storing them. The solution is best applied in situations where information is derived from a variety of sources and there exists a well-established, multi-stage processing environment.

Forms Processing deals with volumes of paper-based forms for automatic extraction of data, using technologies such as Optical Mark Recognition, Optical Character Recognition, Intelligent Character Recognition, Barcode Recognition, etc.

These solutions find application in several business areas like banking, financial institutions, telecom, educational institutions, hospitals, manufacturing, insurance, customer care, and government.

The Future

Today, we are in the middle of a revolution sparked by rapid progress in imaging and computer technology. But contrary to common belief, computers are not as fast as humans in computations related to the analysis or processing of images. Biological or human vision is still by far the most powerful and versatile perceptual mechanism. Scientist Mead notes that “the visual system of a single human being does more image processing than the entire world’s supply of supercomputers.” However, some tasks such as image compression, enhancement and data extraction from paper via technologies such as OMR, OCR and ICR, etc, can now be performed on desktop computers available today.

With increasing power and sophistication of modern computing, the concept of computation can go beyond the traditional, sequential Von Neumann architecture and one could even contemplate optical implementations. A major challenge for automatic image analysis is that the sheer complexity of the visual task has been mostly ignored by the current approaches. We (humans) compute, but not necessarily the way most of the present day computer systems do. After all, nature did not know anything about bits and Boolean algebra when vision was created!

It should be noted that the present computer methods, by contrast, could provide answers only to precisely stated questions that are not ill-defined. But a ray of hope surely comes from the distributed and parallel computing paradigms that are expected to boost real-time response for many image processing solutions. Image processing technology is waiting to address many unanswered questions. There is every reason to believe that once this technology achieves a level of competence that even modestly approaches that of human vision, and at a competitive cost, the imaging applications will virtually explode.

Near New Trimble Nomad GPS field computer:$1400.00

his is a Like New Trimble TDS ruggedized Nomad 800L. $1400.00. It has 806 MHz DDR memory, It performs flawlessly and never even once locked up. Even with the enormous maps we used, it was unstoppable. The screen quality and clarity is unbelievable and in my opinion, it is the best all in one unit on the market and the best value for the money. The onboard GPS performed flawlessly and acquired satellites quickly. It has never been dropped or mishandled. List price is $1899 (per SDG systems). It comes with the following features/accessories:

System

-Windows Mobile version 6 OS

-806MHz XScale processor

-128MB DDR SDRAM

-1GB non-volatile built-in Flash storage

-1 SD Memory card slot

-1 CompactFlash (CF) (Type II) slot

-Integrated Bluetooth 2.0

-USB Boot with USB-client, USB-host, and audio jack

-3.5 inch VGA display, sunlight readable color touchscreen

-Integrated spaker and microphone

-15 Hour battery life with active use (default settings)

Standard Software

-GPS Controller software for controlling NMEA output and in-field mission planning

-Microsoft Office Mobile

-Transcriber (handwriting recognition)

Standard Accessories

-Rechargeable Li-Ion battery module

-Screen protector

-AC power supply/recharger

-USB data cable

-User guide

-Hand strap

Configuration options (For this model: 800L)

-Integrated 802.11 b/g wireless

-Integrated GPS (2-5 m post processed accuracy)

Email : sales@avalanchemapping.org

Attached Thumbnails

Computer Science - A Growing Field That Needs a Few (More) Good Women

Barbara Liskov of MIT recently won the prestigious Turing Award.

Credit : Donna Coveney, MIT (contact MIT before using this image)

Permission Granted

State: Massachusetts,New Hampshire

Agency: NSF

Date: March 30, 2009

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When the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) awarded Barbara Liskov the prestigious Turing Award earlier this month, their decision and timing were perfect--Liskov is a true pioneer in her field and March is National Women's History Month. In addition to making the types of "foundational innovations" that the ACM cited in awarding the MIT professor the honor often described as the 'Nobel Prize in computing,' Liskov was also the first woman to receive a doctorate from a computer science department in the United States.

In the years since Liskov began her career, the field of computer science has seen astonishing changes and advances that have touched every field of science and modern life. Yet for all of this progress, one stubborn fact remains the same-relatively few women are studying computer science as their academic major.

According to Jan Cuny, program office for the National Science Foundation's Broadening Participation in Computing (BPC) program, fewer than one in five degrees in computer science are being awarded to women. Cuny says that research shows many girls are interested in the field when they are younger, but as they approach their middle school years, that interest begins to drop off dramatically. There are a lot of reasons for this, Cuny says, including dull middle school and high school classes that portray computer science as more of a non-challenging vocational field.

Cuny says that perhaps the biggest barrier, however, is the perception that field itself just isn't very fun. "Girls have an image of computer scientists as being nerds who spend all day in isolation," Cuny said in a recent interview. "This is a misconception, but it's very difficult to convince a fourth- or fifth-grade girl otherwise."

Many prominent women working in the field as researchers paint a very different picture of computer science. To them, computer science offers them the chance to solve complex problems that challenge the world and contribute to discoveries and breakthroughs happening in other fields of science. They speak of the unique perspective that computer scientists bring to the pursuit of knowledge. "I think computer science is a great field," Liskov said last week. "It requires a certain kind of thinking. It's an engineering field, so you really have to enjoy building things."

Tanzeem Choudhury, a researcher at Dartmouth College, agrees. To her, computer science is a highly collaborative field where computer scientists work in teams to create new ideas and technologies. Choudhury, who was recently named one of the top 35 innovators in science and technology under the age of 35 by MIT's Technology Review, works on developing machine learning techniques can analyze how humans interact with each other.

Choudhury agrees that there are many barriers that prevent women from getting involved in computer science. "There are lots of stereotypes," Choudhury said earlier this month, "and stereotypes take awhile to go away. Just take the notion that women aren't good at math and computer science, which is just not true."

Choudhury advises young women to ignore the stereotypes and talk to women working in computer science to get a better idea of what the field is really like and what it has to offer.

All the women interviewed agreed that more women are needed in the field. "Technology is so pervasive and is going to become more and more so," Cuny said. "Women should have a voice in how those changes are going to be made."

Related Institutions/Organizations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Dartmouth College

Locations
Massachusetts
New Hampshire

Related Websites
Barbara Liskov's homepage at MIT: http://www.pmg.csail.mit.edu/~liskov/
Tanzeem Choudhury's homepage at Dartmouth College: http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~tanzeem/
NSF's Broadening Participation in Computing program: http://www.nsf.gov/funding/pgm_summ.jsp?pims_id=13510&org=CNS&from=home

Computer Programming and the Law: A New Research Agenda

By my best estimate, at least twenty different law professors on the tenure track at American law schools once held a job as a professional computer programmer. I am proud to say that two of us work at my law school.

Most of these hyphenate lawprof-coders rarely write any code today, and this is a shame. There are many good reasons why the world would be a better place if we began to integrate computer programming into legal scholarship (and more generally, into law and policy).

Two years ago, I wrote a blog post for a lawprof blog exploring this idea. I promised a follow-up post, but never delivered. A year later, I expanded the idea into an essay, which the good people at the Villanova Law Review agreed to publish sometime later this year. With this post, I am releasing a slightly-outdated draft of the essay for the first time to the public. You can download it at SSRN.

In the abstract, I say:

This essay proposes a new interdisciplinary research agenda called Computer Programming and the Law. By harnessing the power of computer programming, legal scholars can develop better tools, data, and insights for advancing their research interests. This essay presents the case for this new research agenda, highlights some examples of those who have begun to blaze the trail, and includes code samples to demonstrate the power and potential of developing software for legal scholarship. The code samples in this essay can be run like a piece of software—thanks to a technique known as literate programming—making this the world’s first law review article that is also a working computer program.

If you have any interest in the intersection of technology and policy (in other words, if you read this blog), please read the essay and let me know what you think. Unlike many law review articles, this one is short. And how bad could it be? It contains 350 lines of perl! (Wait, don't answer that!)

New Research Shows Severe National Security Threat Posed By Computer File-Sharing Networks

(1888PressRelease) June 02, 2009 - TORONTO, Ontario, Canada – ZapShares Inc. announced today the findings of new research that indicates computer systems located in Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia are scouring computer Peer-To-Peer (also known as “P2P”) file-sharing networks for classified information that could place national security at risk.

The research found offshore computers searching for, among other things, information pertaining to many principal United States national defense contractors, weapons system information, classified government documents, information that could be used to steal the identity of United States citizens, and other data that could place national security at risk. “What we found most alarming was the fact that a majority of these searches originated from Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia,” said Bernard Trest, President of ZapShares Inc.

In a recent study ZapShares Inc. found that large numbers of people are inadvertently sharing personal tax returns, banking and other financial information, credit card information, and other data that identity thieves could use to steal a person’s identity. “We are very concerned regarding the threat that is posed to national security since individuals within countries such as Iran and North Korea are easily capable of stealing the identity of United States citizens,” said Trest.

To view a partial list of search terms ZapShares Inc. was able to discover that computers located within Iran, North Korea, China, and Russia are searching for on P2P file-sharing networks, visit: www.zapshares.com/nationalsecurity.pdf

ZapShares Inc.(TM) was founded in 2008 to develop innovative security solutions for P2P file-sharing networks. ZapShares offers the first and only solution to help protect 200 million P2P file-sharers from rampant identity theft and lawsuits. The companies ZapShares software is a free tool that scans a user’s computer and identifies potential security threats caused by P2P software installed on a user’s computer. To learn more ZapShares, visit www.zapshares.com

If you’d like more information about ZapShares Inc., our research, or our software, or to schedule an interview with Bernard Trest, you can contact him at:

New Research in Computer Control by Head Tracking

Published: Jun 27, 2007

People with special needs require special devices for controlling a mouse or typing on a keyboard while communicating using a computer. At the ICCHP conference held July 12-14, 2006, the staff of Hansei University presented their paper on development of a new assistive technology system that facilitates hands-free control of a computer by tracking head movements. It will enable people with spinal cord injuries and other special needs to operate a personal computer efficiently.

Physically disabled people usually encounter difficulties while controlling a computer using classical devices. CameraMouse, Quick Glance 2, Smart Nav and QualiEye CameraMouse are some of the commercial mice available in the market as substitutes for a standard mouse. Other systems available commercially that facilitate the usage of a personal computer for people with physical disabilities have two major drawbacks. One, these systems need special devices and two, most of them are expensive.

The proposed system can be run on a standard Windows platform. Unlike other commercial hands-free products that use special devices, this system uses a standard USB video camera to track head movements. Apart from physically disabled people, it can be applied to users operating common devices like ATMs, vending machines and pay phones. This proposed mouse is specifically designed for people with spinal cord injuries like quadriplegia, muscular dystrophy and other conditions.

The system utilizes Man-Computer Interface (MCI) and a PC camera. Using a standard communication interface equipped with corresponding software the disabled user can control a PC by head movements and an eye blink for clicking. Any person with controlled movement of the head can operate the mouse. This assistive technology product is cost-effective and a disabled user can use the system for a PC mouse and a keyboard. This system can be used as an alternative for a normal mouse, because a PC camera is used to track head movements and translates these movements into cursor movements on a computer screen by using matching and tracking algorithms. The system utilizes the information for clicking, double clicking and dragging processes as it recognizes the position of the eyes. The disabled user does not require additional devices, except a standard PC camera, to use the system effectively. The advantages this system has over other commercially available systems are that the software can be customized and adjusted and it can accommodate varying degrees of control.

In order to track and translate head movements into cursor movements on a computer screen, a small nose image is used as a template and the template is compared with an input face image sequence. For the template matching process, the features taken into consideration are: nose is located at the center of the face, abrupt gradient change because of nostrils and no sudden change duration and translation of the face. This system detects the user’s nose area automatically and then uses it for template and double template matching.

The use of this assistive technology product is not restricted to disabled users only. People indulging in PC games and operating ATM machines, vending machines and pay phones can also use this system.