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IPv6 for CTOs

The decision making process in choosing technologies to deploy IPv6 and extending the lifetime of available IPv4 addresses cannot be simplified into a diagram. These are decisions that require careful consideration of an organization's business model, financial situation, and so forth. IPv6@APNIC will share more detailed documents on this topic.

The following flow chart provides a quick glance of the options currently available. It should be a good starting point to think about the future direction of your business.

Click on the diagram to enlarge it.

IPv6 for CTO flow chart

More about Customer Premise Equipment (CPE)

Provisioned CPE is equipment provided by the ISP directly to their customers. The ISP manages these CPE by using a specific management system. This way, the ISP can initiate configuration and upgrades. Provisioned CPEs are not sold at consumer level.

CPE not provisioned by the ISP can be purchased at a consumer level at retail shops. These are prepared by end users individually.

More about NAT444

NAT444 CGN was developed to prolong IPv4 address availability by using un-routable private IP addresses in the Service Provider's (SP) network. NAT444 CGN is not a mechanism for IPv6 transition. Utilizing NAT444 CGN without deploying an IPv6 transition mechanism will not guarantee business continuity. There are other negative consequences to Network Address Translation (NAT), including:

  • Breaks the end-to-end model of IP
  • Breaks end-to-end security
  • Serious consequences for lawful intercept
  • Non-NAT friendly appreciations mean more upgrades
  • Difficult to scale NAT performance for large networks due to restricted availability on number of ports per customer

Service Providers wishing to use an IPv4 extension mechanism such as NAT444 CGN still need to deploy IPv6 networks. Some SPs may rely on NAT444 CGN for a time to prolong IPv4 address availability, but they also need to deploy IPv6 networks simultaneously to ensure business continuity.

Service Providers need to focus on minimizing operational complexity during the transition to IPv6. A native IPv6 network could be an ultimate goal, but a few transitional steps may be required to reach this. Ideally, organizations would minimize the number of iterations of transition technology implementations on the road to a native IPv6 network.