[AusNOG] Telstra IPv6 Wireless Enablement

[Sunny Yeung]

Hi AusNOGgers!

As a first step in our transition to IPv6, Telstra is proud to announce the
availability of IPv6 to the general public on Telstra Wireless by the end
of August/early September 2016. This means when you attach your mobile
device to the Telstra network on Telstra.WAP or Telstra.Internet APNs,
depending on your device configuration, you will receive both an IPv4 and
IPv6 address from the network.

Note that the enablement is currently targeted at post-paid services only.

Some more official announcements will be provided over the next few weeks
so keep an eye out for more information.

*Overview*

   - IPv6 is a new internet protocol for the future. It contains a new
   addressing format for devices and applications to connect and communicate
   over the global internet.
   - Due to the exhaustion of IPv4 addresses worldwide, Telstra is
   preparing our mobile customers by introducing IPv6 addresses for each
   service.
   - Telstra’s goal for activating IPv6 is to provide the same service as
   IPv4, but with a more modern protocol which will allow for future growth of
   the Internet, and support for future technologies such as IoT.
   - The Long Term strategy is to use IPv6 only for the entire network
   end-to-end.
   - IPv6 is live on the standard Telstra.WAP and Telstra.Internet APNs.
   Access to IPv6 requires further configuration on the user device, which
   Telstra will provide automatically at a later date.

*How much does it cost?*

   - It is available at the same cost as existing IPv4 services for all
   Telstra customers

*Will IPv6 change the way I use the internet?*

   - There is no direct change in usage experience.
   - Network administrators and IT professionals who manage network
   equipment and internet applications should start planning for using the new
   addressing structure so that their systems and applications are also
   accessible using IPv6 addresses.
   - As IPv4 will be in place for many years to come across the general
   internet, more advanced users may change to enable IPv6 at their own pace
   over the coming 2+ years.

*How will I know if I am using IPv6 or have IPv6 available?*

   - Depending on if you have a device with IPv6 enabled or not, one can
   visit ipv6.test-ipv6.com to test their IPv6 connection. This page will
   not load if one is not using IPv6.



Ok now that we’ve gotten the fluffy stuff out of the way…

*What you will experience over the next few months…*

The enablement will be carried out over two phases. Phase 1 is really a
network function ready announcement and deployment for Dual-Stack support.
This means the network is ready to carry both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.
Fundamentally there is no difference between the two APNs at this stage.
This is what we will be releasing by the end of August/early September.

Phase 2 is where it will get interesting. We will begin enabling
Single-Stack IPv6 devices on Telstra.WAP, and maintaining devices that
attach to Telstra.internet as dual-stack. There are some good reasons for
this.

1.       Single-Stack IPv6 resolves some issues with private IPv4 address
depletion. We will be doing this with 464XLAT+NAT64+DNS64 on telstra.wap.
This setting is primarily targeted at handsets and tablets. We will be
updating handsets and tablets that can support this with the updated
carrier settings via Maintenance updates in the very near future. Almost
all android handsets released over the last year by Telstra already
supports 464XLAT, and it just requires a carrier setting update :)

2.       Telstra.Internet is primarily used for dongles, BYOD tablets, WIFI
Modems and tethering etc. we have no idea what’s on the other end and
whether it supports IPv6. So we are leaving it alone as dual-stack for the
time being. This APN will continue to use our regular DNS with no
NAT64/DNS64 so single-stack IPv6 users beware on this APN!

Technically single-stack is working today already on Telstra.wap, and we
are just ironing out some teething issues, but officially we are going to
be announcing Dual-Stack support first. The network has technically been
running with IPv6 enabled for about 3 years already, and if you didn’t
know, VoLTE is entirely IPv6 only.



*Why is AusNOG hearing this now?*

Apart from being a fantastic community forum, I feel it is important that
our technical community is aware of our changes first. As with all things
there will be teething problems when we launch. We have already identified
issues with IPv6 addressing interacting with some embedded wireless
adapters and Windows 8.1. (it just fails until the interface is reset). We
have done testing with certified Telstra equipment but we cannot possibly
test every application / OS. So far in our testing, the network appears to
be responding correctly to IPv4v6 requests, but we know that community
engagement will be important on launch to keep the IPv6 momentum going. The
last thing we want is to roll back to IPv4!

To make sure we get a 2nd opinion, we have also engaged an external
organisation to help us test, and they have been helping us with testing
for a better part of one year already, and have reported minimal issues so
far. I want to take an opportunity to thank APNIC for their efforts, their
patience while we got everything up and running.


*I want to connect now!*
Go right ahead! just be warned official support is not yet available until
we officially launch in a few weeks. but i'll do my best to help. First you
need a Telstra post-paid service. You need to create a new APN in your
device and then save it and select it:


*Non-Mobile device:Dual-Stack*
APN profile: telstra.internetDS
APN name: telstra.internet
APN type: default
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6
APN roaming protocol: IPv4


*Mobile device:*

*select telstra.wap APN not any others*
APN profile: telstra.wapv6
APN name: telstra.wap
APN type: default,hspl
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6 (you can set this to IPv6 only as well)
APN roaming protocol: IPv4

APN name: telstra.internet
APN type: dun
APN protocol: IPv4/IPv6
APN roaming protocol: IPv4

*Contacting us*

Telstra will be creating contact points in Crowdsupport, and a special
email address to which will be shared later where you can engage with our
engineering team directly when required. For the meantime, I am reachable
if you have any specific questions. We want to work with the community to
make this a smooth transition as much as possible.


Sunny Yeung

sunny.yeung at team.telstra.com
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