[AusNOG] IPv6

[Mark Andrews]

In message <D139FC6B.79F8F%chris at minopher.net.au>, Chris Hurley writes:
>
> I could be wrong (and I have been before ;-), but the biggest mistake in
> IP6 was not making it backward compatible with IP4. Hence the resistance to
> take it up.

IPv6 was made as similar to IPv4 as possible.  At the application
level you basically just need bigger buffers to hold the addresses.
In many cases they don't even need that.  They just use IP version
agnostic connection techniques.  This applies to both servers and
clients.  Very few applications care about the transport.

Home users just plug their machines in to a IPv6 enabled network
and they just work.  They get both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.  This
has been the case for a decade now.  Been doing this with dual stack
away machines for over a decade now.  No special configuration.

Dual stack CPE devices work similarly if the ISP enables IPv6.  The
CPE use DHCP to get address blocks much the same way as it used
DHCP to get its own addresses.

> Yes there are some good technical agruements with substance as to why we
> should make the quantum leap. But they forget the human lag factor. I.e
> it's not broken don't fix,  It costs money, where's my return etc.

Nobody here is asking anyone to make a "quantum leap".  People are
asking ISP's to enable IPv6 _along_side_ IPv4.  The quantum leap
is to go to IPv6 only.

For ISP's most of equipement you already have is almost certainly
IPv6 capable.  Its just a matter of configuring to pass IPv6 traffic.

The return in the end is a simpler network.  Less work as all
customers except the very largest have the same provisioning.  Less
juggling of address blocks.

You stop being liable to false advertising claims.  The Internet
has been dual stack for a decade now.  The I in ISP is "Internet"
not "IPv4".

> That being said and the fact we have now "exhausted" IP4 addresses, what
> are the realistic options? Bare in mind consumers/companies only really care
> about "Do I have internet access". They neither know or care about the IP.
> They just want their porn, don't laugh. Given the number of outside hours
> clients trying to get support all to true.

Parts of the Internet are only contactable if you have IPv6 today
as a result of that part of the Internet running out of IPv4 addresses
and having to share the ones they have between customers.

What you do now is turn on IPv6 and enable CGNAT to contact the
legacy servers if you have run out of addresses.

> Personally I thought the NBN was the perfect vehicle to mandate IP6, but
> the powers that be said you can run what ever you like eg AppleTalk for all we
> care. Seriously you want 21st Century tech but prepared to run old
> technology.
>
> Mind you people have been talking about this issue for many years.

The leaders in the world have gone ahead and deployed IPv6 while
the lazy ISPs here have continued talk about it.  6% of the world
is IPv6 enabled at this point in time.  Thats 100's of millions of
customers for your customers.

Get IPv6 from your upstream and a address block from your RIR look
at a /48 per customer when making the initial request.  Configure
a 6to4 anycast relay to see how much IPv6 your customers are already
doing.  Treat this as a first class service.  This improves the
IPv6 experience for those that are forced for one reason or another
to use 6to4.  Configure a 6rd BR and configure the 6RD DHCP option
to let your customers CPE devices know where they are.  Tell your
customers that 6rd is available so the can enable 6rd in their
boxes.  This will get some more IPv6 traffic and moving some of the
6to4 traffic to use 6rd.  None of this changes the IPv4 addresses
your customers get from you.  Your customers are still only sending
IPv4 packets though some of them will encapsulate IPv6 packets.

This is a matter if configuring some routers to perform these
functions.

Next get around to finding the places that need to upgraded to
deliver IPv6 natively to your customers.  What you need to measure
IPv6 from your customers natively.  Get these issued (if any) fixed
and deliver IPv6 natively.  Once that is done you can decommission
the 6to4 and 6rd relays.

> Regards,
>
> Chris Hurley BE (Elec), MBA
> Director

-- 
Mark Andrews, ISC
1 Seymour St., Dundas Valley, NSW 2117, Australia
PHONE: +61 2 9871 4742                 INTERNET: marka at isc.org