freebsd announce - Apr 2011 - FreeBSD Foundation announces funding for IPv6 support

The FreeBSD Foundation is pleased to announce that it has awarded Bjoern 
Zeeb a grant to improve the maturity of IPv6 support in FreeBSD and 
PC-BSD. This project is jointly sponsored with iXsystems.

FreeBSD's KAME-based reference implementation of IPv6 first appeared in 
FreeBSD 4.0, and can be found in a broad range of FreeBSD-derived 
commercial products. To date, IPv6 has been an optionally configured 
feature present in the default FreeBSD kernel; however, IPv6 
configuration has implied configuration of IPv4. With much
"IPv6-ready"
application software relying on dual-stack behavior, broken IPv6 
applications go unnoticed. Adding support for an IPv6 kernel without 
IPv4 will make FreeBSD and PC-BSD an ideal test and development platform 
for both open source and proprietary IPv6-aware application software.

"Narrowing down the code base to not rely on legacy IP will help us to 
identify OS and application components requiring improvement to work 
well in an IPv6 environment. This project will help to ensure a bright 
IPv6 future, as FreeBSD is used throughout the Internet: root name 
servers, storage appliances, routers, firewalls, TVs, desktop and mobile 
systems, and many of the world's busiest web sites," said Mr. Zeeb. 
FreeBSD Foundation director and FreeBSD core team member Robert Watson 
described the project as critical to the future of FreeBSD, "Bjoern's 
work will not only improve the maturity of our IPv6 implementation, but 
also motivate improvement of applications used in million of deployed 
FreeBSD and FreeBSD-derived systems." The project will also improve the 
quality and performance of FreeBSD's IPv6 stack.

Bjoern Zeeb is a consultant based in Germany and has been an active 
FreeBSD committer since 2004. He is currently also a member of the 
FreeBSD Security and Release Engineering teams, and was recently awarded 
the Itojun Service Award for his work on IPv6 in FreeBSD.

The FreeBSD Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated 
to supporting the FreeBSD Project and community. The Foundation 
gratefully accepts donations from individuals and businesses, using them 
to fund and manage projects, sponsor FreeBSD events, Developer Summits 
and provide travel grants to FreeBSD developers. In addition, the 
Foundation represents the FreeBSD Project in executing contracts, 
license agreements, and other legal arrangements that require a 
recognized legal entity. The FreeBSD Foundation is entirely supported by 
donations. More information about The FreeBSD Foundation is available on 
the web at http://www.FreeBSDFoundation.org.