Today’s IPv4 networking software and hardware has been proven over time – you know how they work and you have confidence in your network. You know how many routes a specific device can hold and you know your PE routers will handle a routing update, and how much data can be forwarded because the router is working today.

The quality of IPv6 software and features in vendor equipment is unproven and largely untested. While vendors are delivering IPv6 features to their products as new hardware or software updates, these features aren’t necessarily perfect, reliable or performing properly. In this article, we consider the causes of poor IPv6 compatibility and how to address them by running a testing environment to detect problems, test vendor fixes and establish a validation process for network equipment.

Apple Computer came under fire for back-pedaling on its support for IPv6, the next-generation Internet Protocol, at a gathering of experts held in Denver this week.

Presenters at the North American IPv6 Summit expressed annoyance that the latest version of Apple’s AirPort Utility, Version 6.0, is no longer compatible with IPv6. The previous Version, 5.6, offered IPv6 service by default.

“Home gateways have been one of the areas that was slowing IPv6 adoption,”

In order to pass the UNH-IOL test, home gateways must enable IPv6 by default and pass a set of interoperability tests. So far, the lab has approved six home gateways as passing 100% of its interoperability tests

While home networking vendors like Cisco and D-Link are adding IPv6 across their product lines, Apple appears to be the only vendor that is removing this feature.

Home gateways are a critical class of networking gear that requires upgrading as the Internet migrates from IPv4, the original version of the Internet Protocol, to IPv6.

IPv6 is needed because IPv4 is running out of addresses to connect new users and new devices to the Internet. IPv6 solves this problem with a vastly expanded address space, but it is not backwards-compatible with IPv4. So ISPs like Comcast have to upgrade their routing, edge, security, network management and customer premises equipment to support IPv6.

The alternative is for carriers to translate between IPv4 and IPv6 addresses, which adds latency and cost to network operations.

“Yes, IPv4 addresses are running out, but a Y2K-style disaster/frenzy won’t be coming in 2012. Instead, businesses are likely to spend the coming year preparing to upgrade to IPv6, experts say. Of course there’s a chance that panic will ensue when Europe’s RIPE hands out its last IPv4 addresses this summer, but ‘most [businesses] understand that they can live without having to make any major investments immediately,’ said IDC analyst Nav Chander. Plus, it won’t be until 2013 that North America will run out of IPv4 addresses and there’s no sense getting worked up before then.”

ISP’s and hosting companies will not run out of IPs. This only means that the price per IP will start to slowly grow.

Sounds just like a Y2K-style disaster/frenzy.

The question I’d like to ask is why don’t they just hand out a static IP by default? The vast majority of broadband connections are always on; they aren’t saving IPs by handing out dynamic assignments.
There’s a few good reasons off the top of my head that I can think of:
– Dynamic IPs cut a lot of bullshit out of support calls
– DHCP servers hand out more information that just IPs (default gateway, DNS servers, domain, etc)
– ISPs like to have the option of re-allocating blocks of IPs without having to call hundreds/thousands of customers to have them renumber their equipment

“Google is four years into a project to roll out IPv6 to its entire internal employee network. At the Usenix Large Installation System Administration (LISA) conference in Boston last week, Google network engineer Irena Nikolova shared some lessons others can learn from Google’s experience. For example: It requires a lot of work with vendors to get them to fix buggy and still-unfinished code. ‘We should not expect something to work just because it is declared supported,’ the paper accompanying the presentation concluded.”

Usenix: Google deploys IPv6 for internal network
Though the project is only halfway finished, Google’s IPv6 network is already bearing fruit
http://www.itworld.com/networking/231929/usenix-google-deploys-ipv6-internal-network

From the experience, Google has learned that an IPv6 migration involves more than just updating the software and hardware. It also requires buy-in from management and staff, particularly administrators who already are juggling too many tasks. And, for early adopters, it requires a lot of work with vendors to get them to fix buggy and still-unfinished code. “We should not expect something to work just because it is declared supported,” the paper accompanying the presentation concluded.

“I think everyone who has tried to migrate to IPv6 has run into the same problems we have,” Nikolova said.

Even though it was a private network, Google’s internal network used public IP addresses, and Google was running out of internal IPv4 addresses. Also, Google engineers were developing IPv6 versions of Google’s own tools and applications and needed to test this software internally before releasing it to the public.

Lastly, Google engineers realized they faced a chicken-and-egg problem with deploying IPv6

The engineers modeled the IPv6 network as closely as possible on the existing IPv4 one, to keep the routing and traffic flow largely the same.

To assign IPv6 numbers to devices, Google followed the guidelines in the Internet Engineering Task Force’s RFC 5375. Each campus or office got a /48 address block, which meant that it was allotted 280 addresses. In turn, each building got a /56 block of those addresses (or about 272 addresses) and each VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) received a /64 block, or about 264 addresses. To assign numbers to specific devices, the engineers used the Stateless Address Auto-Configuration capability (SLAAC), which allows the devices to assign numbers to themselves.

Many network devices now only support IPv6 in software, meaning that much of the traffic processing is carried out in software, rather than with customized hardware. As a result, IPv6 network operations consume more processor cycles than IPv4 operations do.

Application and OS compatibility also proved to be a challenge

In their census, the number of active IPv6 addresses went from 1.27% of all overall IP addresses in the 2010 sample to 25.4% in the 2011 sample. And more than 80% of the v6 addresses are being hosted by Go Daddy.

Go Daddy’s Chief Technology Officer, Dave Koopman, told us that “Go Daddy sees IPv6 enabled services as critical to the continued growth of the Internet.”

Let’s put aside for the moment the matter of whether you’re going to upgrade your client or app or server to support IPv6, what would need consideration if you did?

Recent commodity operating system versions such as Windows and *nix (including Linux and Mac OS X), and language libraries (eg C/C++/C#, Java, etc) support IPv6 one way or another, and network tools and browsers generally do too.

The real IPv6 Gordian Knot is likely in many cases to be that soup of half-brained it-kinda-works stuff known as in-house code. It may assume that an IP address is always 4 bytes (or can be entered or displayed as a dotted-quad) for example; think of space on reports, in database fields, log formatting, etc, etc.

IPv6 Gets Ready for the Smart Grid and the Internet of Things
http://www.rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/102263?utm_source=ePubXpress&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Read+More&utm_content=RTC+Magazine+Digital+E-Newsletter&utm_campaign=111004_RTC_E-Letter

As intelligent devices proliferate into diverse and special-purpose networks, the enhanced address space, routing and security features of IPv6 will be required for universal connectivity.

The World Is Moving to IPv6: Are You and Your Product Ready?
http://www.rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/102290?utm_source=ePubXpress&utm_medium=email&utm_term=The+World+Is+Moving+to+IPv6%3A+Are+You+and+Your+Product+Ready%3F&utm_content=RTC+Magazine+Digital+E-Newsletter&utm_campaign=111004_RTC_E-Letter

The transition to IPv6 is more than just a move to an expanded address space. It involves a system of routing and address formats that will make the Internet more versatile. Compatibility with IPv4 is not automatically assured, and a rigorous program of certification is needed to ensure interoperability.

Yanick Pouffary, HP’s IPv6 worldwide leader told The INQUIRER that most network firms can’t expect to make a penny from new hardware sales. Pouffary pointed to the fact that IPv6 had been seen so far ahead by vendors that most users won’t need to buy new hardware because current kit, regardless of vendor, most likely already supports IPv6.

Just as there has been pressure for governments and the European Union to push firms to deploy fiber-optic broadband, Pouffray said that similar interventions should also be pressed for IPv6. “Government incentives and mandates are extremely important in addressing the transformation [to IPv6]. We’re talking about infrastructure here [...] and it’s all about restoring the criticality of the infrastructure.”

Given that few internet service providers (ISPs) have deployed IPv6 on the last mile, it is possible that the built-to-a-budget routers they have sent to customers might need to be changed out.