IP networks have lately been under tremendous pressure to evolve. Compared to the last few decades, the last few years have seen unprecedented change in IP networking. Although the job of handling packets seems relatively straight-forward, complexity arises from increasingly demanding application requirements, the need for enhanced security, and complications introduced by new technologies. What used to fit handily into the OSI Layer model (if anything ever did) now sits in a tangled heap on most network diagrams.

So what will the future bring?

Some expert futurists anticipate another 10 years of highly dynamic evolution in networking is ahead. Certainly we all have become familiar with the process of incremental improvements (or "not-so improvements" in some cases) and occasional disruptive discontinuities in technological progress. But the jumps are few and far between. And sometimes, like the shift to everything-over-IP and Ethernet-as-king, the changes don't reflect any new technologies -- just a new market attitude.

Looking over the recent past, we can see how IP networking has been complicated (or "improved" if you prefer) by a number of "new" developments:

• IPv6
• Gigabit Ethernet
• wireless
• TCP stacks
• performance metrics for IP networks
• edge controls
• NIC re/design
• security

For the benefit of improved foresight, let's consider how each of these has impacted IP networks.

IPv6

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