We do not think, that _it wil be IPv6_. IPv6 is a good example of _second_ system, and do not looks as _succesfull_ for now. And it is not definitely _LAST PROTOCOL_.
enter jim fleming (or those chinese guys, more recently) with ipv9
No, enter the National Science Foundation... http://www.nsf.gov/cise/geni/ Jim Fleming's idea wasn't all that crazy and some people are looking at similar partitioning schemes to make IPv6 multihoming practical. The IPv9 idea from China had nothing to do with IP, it was just a catchy marketing name for yet another domain naming scheme like RealNames. There really is serious, non-crazy research work going on to make a better replacement for the Internet Protocol. And Dave Clark, author of this interesting document on Internet routing: http://www.networksorcery.com/enp/ien/ien46.txt has recently been going around giving talks on fundamental re-architecting the Internet. At MIT he is a director of the CFP which is getting NSF GENI grant money to explore this: http://cfp.mit.edu/groups/internet/internet.html This is not the 1990's any more. ISO/CLNP has gone away. ATM has been embraced in MPLS. PSTN is being embraced in VoIP such as the British Telecom 21CN initiative. What was crazy yesterday, is thinkable today. In the end, IPv6 may be able to incorporate enough of these new ideas to continue as the last protocol. But we don't know that yet. --Michael Dillon