Myths and Facts for IPv6 technology

1
Myths and Facts for IPv6 technology

• Athanassios Liakopoulos
• Greek Research Technology Network (GRNET)
• 3rd IPv6 Network Management Tutorial
• Belgrade, 3rd March 2005

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How severe is the IPv4 address depletion problem?

• There is a shortage of available IPv4 addresses
  in many areas of the planet.
• Unequal distribution of available IPv4 addresses
  during the last decade Digital Divide
• Europe and South America, even if they have been
  allocated a sufficient number of IPv4 addresses,
  are going to face the same problem by the time
  new terminals will join the Internet.
• Some examples are 3rd generation mobile phones,
  electronics devises, sensors, home appliances,
  transportation vehicles, airplanes, etc.
• Advanced or innovative applications are envisaged
  to need multiple IP address for controlling
  sub-terminals.
• Some examples are Telemetry, Automation, Space
  and military application

3
Does IPv6 enhance the Internet security in the
data communications?

• RFC2460 Internet Protocol Version 6
  Specifications notes that Authentication and
  Encapsulation Security Payload ?SP extensions
  headers should be supported by the IPv6 hosts
• The use of the above headers is not compulsory.
• Similar functionality is supported from IPv4
  Security
• The avoidance of NAT/PAT in the IPv6 world
  improve the e2e security in data transfers.
• Security in the IPv6 networks is questionable not
  because of the protocol limitations but due to
  administrators inexperience.
• IPv6 protocols, techniques and transition
  mechanisms may arise security problems in the
  future.

4
Does End User privacy is in danger in an IPv6
world?

• An IPv6 end systems may automatically create its
  IPv6 address based on its MAC address and the
  route advertisement.
• MAC address is always the same and thus the
  suffix of the IPv6 address remains the same.
• ?? RFC3041 Privacy Extensions tries to sort
  this out allowing hosts to change IPv6 address
  while connected
• The use of IP-based authentication may become
  tricky.
• DoS attacks are more difficult to be traced.

5
Does IPv6 traffic experience more delays than
IPv4 traffic?

• New hardware/software is designed to switch IPv6
  packets as fast as IPv4 traffic
• Obsolete hardware or software could impose
  performance penalties to IPv6 traffic compared to
  IPv4 traffic.
• The use of tunnels is gradually minimized in the
  networks leading to more efficient and stable
  routing topologies.
• More and more dual stack applications are
  designed to use IPv6 before fall back to IPv4.
• Problems may arise if the IPv6 connectivity is
  broken.
• QoS Support in IPv6 header
• Two header fields Traffic Class (8-bit) and
  Flow Label (20-bit)
• The QoS provisioning means much more than few
  bits at the IP4/6 packet headers, such as service
  provisioning, monitoring and SLA/SLS
  verification, admission control and policy
  enforcement, etc.

6
Is IPv6 technology mature?

• Latest operating systems support IPv6 protocols,
  most of them by default.
• Network equipment vendors support all the IPv6
  functionality that is needed for a typical
  network.
• Large scale IPv6 deployments have become a
  reality.
• IPv6 services are offered in the
  telecommunication market.

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What is YOUR perception regarding IPv6 technology?

• What do you think is missing? Awareness?
  Necessity? Vendor support? Other?
• Which applications do you need? What is crucial
  for the everyday operation?
• Are you willing to experiment with IPv6? Why? Why
  not?
• What kind of support would it be beneficial for
  you or your organisation?
• Do you think that you could provide IPv6 services
  today?

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Thanks