IPv6 Transition

Leo T. Chiang
E-Mail: [email protected]

P.1
 Transition Assumptions
• No “Flag Day”
– Last Internet transition was 1983 (NCP
TCP)
• Transition will be incremental
– Possibly over several years
• No IPv4/IPv6 barriers at any time
• No transition dependencies
– No requirement of node X before node Y
• Must be easy for end user
– Transition from IPv4 to dual stack must not break anything
• IPv6 is designed with transition in mind
– Assumption of IPv4/IPv6 coexistence
• Many different transition technologies are A Good
Thing™
– “Transition toolbox” to apply to myriad unique situations
P.2
 Transition Planning
• Assumption: Existing IPv4 network
• Easy Does It
– Deploy IPv6 incrementally, carefully
• Have a master plan
• Think IPv4/IPv6 interoperability, not migration
• Evaluate hardware support
• Evaluate application porting
• Monitor IETF ngtrans WG

P.3
 Transition Strategies
• Edge-to-core
– The edge is the killer app!
– When services are important
– When addresses are scarce
– User (customer) driven
• Core-to-edge
– Good ISP strategy
• By routing protocol area
– When areas are small enough
• By subnet
– Probably too incremental

P.4
 IPv4-IPv6 Transition / Co-Existence
A wide range of techniques have been identified and
implemented, basically falling into three categories:
– (1)Dual-stack techniques, to allow IPv4 and IPv6 to
co-exist in the same devices and networks
– (2)Tunneling techniques, to avoid order dependencies
when upgrading hosts, routers, or regions
– (3)Translation techniques, to allow IPv6-only devices to
communicate with IPv4-only devices
Expect all of these to be used, in combination

P.5
 Dual Stack Approach
IPv6-enable
Application Application
Pre
Ap ferred
plic
atio metho
TCP UDP TCP UDP n’s d
ser on
ver
s

IPv4 IPv6 IPv4 IPv6

Frame
0x0800 0x86dd 0x0800 0x86dd
Protocol ID
Data Link (Ethernet) Data Link (Ethernet)

• Dual stack node means:

–Both IPv4 and IPv6 stacks enabled
–Applications can talk to both
–Choice of the IP version is based on name lookup and application
preference P.6
 Dual Stack Approach & DNS

www.a.com
=*? IPv4

3ffe:b00::1
DNS 10.1.1.1 IPv6
Server
3ffe:b00::1
• In a dual stack case, an application that:
–Is IPv4 and IPv6-enabled
–Asks the DNS for all types of addresses
–Chooses one address and, for example, connects to the
IPv6 address
P.7
 Cisco IOS Dual Stack Configuration
router#
Dual-Stack ipv6 unicast-routing
Router interface Ethernet0
IPv6 and IPv4 ip address 192.168.99.1 255.255.255.0
Network ipv6 address 2001:410:213:1::/64 eui-64

IPv4: 192.168.99.1
IPv6: 2001:410:213:1::/64 eui-64

• Cisco IOS is IPv6-enable:

–If IPv4 and IPv6 are configured on one interface, the router
is dual-stacked
–Telnet, Ping, Traceroute, SSH, DNS client, TFTP,…

P.8
 Using Tunnels for IPv6 Deployment
• Many techniques are available to establish a tunnel:
–Manually configured
•Manual Tunnel (RFC 2893)
•GRE (RFC 2473)
–Semi-automated
•Tunnel broker
–Automatic
•Compatible IPv4 (RFC 2893)
•6to4 (RFC 3056)
•6over4
•ISATAP

P.9
 Tunnel Applications

IPv6 IPv6 IPv6

IPv4

Router to Router

IPv6
IPv4
Host to Host

IPv6 IPv6
IPv4
Host to Router
Router to Host
P.10
 Manually Configured Tunnel (RFC 2893)
Dual-Stack Dual-Stack
Router1 Router2
IPv6 IPv4 IPv6
Network Network

IPv4: 192.168.99.1 IPv4: 192.168.30.1

IPv6: 3ffe:b00:c18:1::3 IPv6: 3ffe:b00:c18:1::2
router1# router2#

interface Tunnel0 interface Tunnel0

ipv6 address 3ffe:b00:c18:1::3/64 ipv6 address 3ffe:b00:c18:1::2/64
tunnel source 192.168.99.1 tunnel source 192.168.30.1
tunnel destination 192.168.30.1 tunnel destination 192.168.99.1
tunnel mode ipv6ip tunnel mode ipv6ip

• Manually Configured tunnels require:

Dual stack end points
Both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses configured at each end
P.11
 IPv6 over IPv4 Tunnels
Transport
IPv6 Header Data
Header

IPv6 Dual-Stack Dual-Stack IPv6

Host Router Router Host
IPv6 IPv4 IPv6
Network Network

Tunnel: IPv6 in IPv4 packet

Transport
IPv4 Header IPv6 Header Data
Header

• Tunneling is encapsulating the IPv6 packet in the IPv4

packet
• Tunneling can be used by routers and hosts
P.12
 IPv4 Compatible Tunnel (RFC 2893)
Dual-Stack Dual-Stack
Router Router
IPv4

IPv4: 192.168.99.1
IPv6: ::192.168.99.1 IPv4: 192.168.30.1
IPv6: ::192.168.30.1
• IPv4-compatible addresses are easy way to
autotunnel, but it:
– May be deprecated soon

P.13
 6to4 Tunnel (RFC 3056)
6to4 6to4
Router1 Router2
IPv6 E0 IPv4 E0 IPv6
Network Network
192.168.99.1 192.168.30.1
Network prefix: Network prefix:
2002:c0a8:6301::/48 2002:c0a8:1e01::/48
= =
router2#
interface Loopback0
• 6to4 Tunnel: ip address 192.168.30.1 255.255.255.0
ipv6 address 2002:c0a8:1e01:1::/64 eui-64
Is an automatic tunnel method interface Tunnel0
no ip address
Gives a prefix to the attached ipv6 unnumbered Ethernet0
IPv6 network tunnel source Ethernet0
tunnel mode ipv6ip 6to4
2002::/16 assigned to 6to4
ipv6 route 2002::/16 Tunnel0
Requires one global IPv4 address
on each Ingress/Egress site P.14
 6to4 Relay
6to4 6to4
IPv6
Router1 Relay
IPv6 IPv4 Internet
Network
192.168.99.1 IPv6
Network prefix: Network
IPv6 address:
2002:c0a8:6301::/48
= 2002:c0a8:1e01::1

router1#
interface Loopback0
ip address 192.168.99.1 255.255.255.0 • 6to4 relay:
ipv6 address 2002:c0a8:6301:1::/64 eui-64
interface Tunnel0 Is a gateway to the rest of
no ip address the IPv6 Internet
ipv6 unnumbered Ethernet0
tunnel source Ethernet0 Default router
tunnel mode ipv6ip 6to4 Anycast address (RFC 3068) for
ipv6 route 2002::/16 Tunnel0 multiple 6to4 Relay
ipv6 route ::/0 2002:c0a8:1e01::1

P.15
 Tunnel Broker
1. Web request 2. Tunnel info response
on IPv4. on IPv4. Tunnel
Broker

IPv4 3. Tunnel Broker

Network configures the tunnel
on the tunnel server or
router.

4. Client establishes the IPv6

tunnel with the tunnel Network
server or router.

• Tunnel broker:
–Tunnel information is sent via http-ipv4
P.16
 IPv6 over MPLS
• IETF Draft as defined in draft-ietf-ngtrans-bgp-tunnel-04.txt
– Connecting IPv6 Islands across IPv4 Clouds with BGP
– Also known as “6PE”
• PEs run Dual Stack MP-BGP over IPv4
– PE and CE exchanges IPv6 routes
– MPLS LDP/RSVP LSPs are set up using IPv4
• Benefits
– Leverages existing MPLS infrastructure
– Requires IPv6 support only on PE router
IPv6

IPv6 IPv4
MPLS
PE2
IPv6
PE1
IPv6

17 P.17
 Transition
6 to 4 Tunneling
• Connects isolated IPv6 domains over an IPv4 infrastructure
• Minimal manual configuration
• Uses globally unique prefix comprised of the unique 6 to 4 TLA
and the globally unique IPv4 address of the exit router
• Expected to ease initial transition

IPv4 Core
IPv6 IPv6
Network Network

IPv6 Packet

Generation 6to4 Router IPv4 PE Router Destination 6to4 router Delivery

recognizes, removes IPv4
Applies Prefix Forwards as Usual prefix
P.18
 IPv6-IPv4 Translation Mechanisms
• Translation
• NAT-PT (RFC 2766)
• TCP-UDP Relay (RFC 3142)
• DSTM (Dual Stack Transition Mechanism)

• API
• BIS (Bump-In-the-Stack) (RFC 2767)
• BIA (Bump-In-the-API)

• ALG
• SOCKS-based Gateway (RFC 3089)
• NAT-PT (RFC 2766)
P.19
 NAT-PT Overview
ipv6 nat prefix 2010::/96
IPv4-only NAT-PT IPv6-only
network network

IPv4 Host 2 IPv6 Host

2001:0420:1987:0:2E0:B0FF:FE6A:412C
172.16.1.1 1
Src: 172.17.1.1
Dst: 172.16.1.1
Src: 2001:0420:1987:0:2E0:B0FF:FE6A:412C
3 Dst: PREFIX::1
4
Src: 172.16.1.1
Dst: 172.17.1.1 Src: PREFIX::1
Dst: 2001:0420:1987:0:2E0:B0FF:FE6A:412C
PREFIX is a 96-bit field that allows routing back to
the NAT-PT device
P.20