Six Things You Need to

Know About IPv6

Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
Executive Overview
IPv6 is the next-generation Internet Protocol and is designated as the
successor to IPv4, which has been the Internets main communication
protocol for over 20 years. With IPv4 address space almost depleted, the
move to IPv6 is necessary to allow the Internet and the global economy
it supports to continue to grow.
The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will be a signicant network changeover and
a milestone in the history of the Internet. The design, implementation and
conguration of IPv6 networks will be a complex process, requiring signicant
changes to current communication systems and management processes. Not
only will IPv6 involve a signicant overhaul to existing infrastructure, it will also
require a new approach to how IP address space is managed.
This white paper will look at what you need to know to get ready for IPv6 and
dispel some of the common myths surrounding the new protocol. You will
read about the business case for transitioning to IPv6 and the practical steps
you need to take now to prepare. We will also discuss the role of IP Address
Management (IPAM) in ensuring a smooth and successful transition.
Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
Background How Did We Get to This Point?
Every device that connects to the network needs an IP address. The IPv4
protocol uses 32-bit addresses with a nite number of possible unique IPv4
addresses about 4 billion. The worlds population is currently over 6.7 billion,
a number that helps illustrate the reality of IPv4 exhaustion.
At the time IPv4 was developed in the 1970s, no one could have anticipated
the explosive growth of IP networks and IP-dependent devices including smart
phones and tablets. The enormous growth of IP networks and IP-enabled
devices has now all but depleted the limited pool of IPv4 address space.
IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, which greatly expands the pool of available IP
addresses with more than 340 undecillion (undecillion = 1036) unique IPv6
addresses available. That is a very big number about 50,000 trillion trillion
addresses per person on the planet.
With the depletion of IPv4 address space, any new applications and services
that have not yet been allocated an IPv4 address will have to support IPv6.
In addition, network innovation will be increasingly centered on IPv6 and
strategic IT initiatives such as cloud computing and virtualization will be built
using the new protocol.
Unfortunately, IPv6 is not backwards-compatible with IPv4. This lack of
backwards compatibility will create signicant challenges for organizations as
they move to IPv6.
Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
1. IPv6 is Here Today And You May Need to be Ready
Sooner Than You Think
Myth: There is no business case for moving to IPv6 right now.
Reality: The business case is what you stand to lose if you do not move to
IPv6, such as global connectivity with customers, prospects, partners and
suppliers and the ability to leverage IPv6 advances and IPv6-dependent
killer apps like cloud computing.
Contrary to popular belief, there is a business case for moving to IPv6 sooner
than later. IPv6 is here and choosing to ignore it is not an option. Already there
are geographies such as Asia Pacic that have deployed and are using IPv6.
More importantly, IPv6 adoption is like a snowball rolling down a hill: with the
exhaustion of IPv4 address space, the number of IPv6 users will rapidly gain
momentum.
It is expected that Asia will run out of top-level IPv4 address blocks in
August 2011. This means that IPv6 connectivity is of paramount importance
for organizations in Asian markets as well as for anyone who wants to
do business with them. If your organization conducts business with Asian
customers, partners or suppliers, IPv6 should be top-of-mind. IPv6 is also
a primary concern for new and expanding organizations and businesses
in emerging markets who will require IP addresses, as well as government
agencies and groups that are mandated to support IPv6.
Organizations that start planning their transition now will be able to:
Maintain a global presence We live in a global economy where the Internet
as we know it today has been a common denominator for communication.
Many parts of the world have already started the migration to IPv6. This has
the potential to create two Internets one in which users communicate via
IPv4 and another in which users connect with IPv6. Organizations must adopt
IPv6 alongside IPv4 for public-facing services such as corporate Web sites,
email applications and DNS to avoid losing market share and connectivity with
the rest of the world. Adopting IPv6 is necessary to reach the full breadth of
Internet users.
Stay ahead of the competition As IPv6 trafc grows, you must ensure that
your Web site and other public-facing services are IPv6-ready to capitalize
on business opportunities from IPv6-enabled customers and users. You will
also be able to leverage IPv6 advances and emerging IPv6-dependent killer
apps to diferentiate yourself in the marketplace and stay ahead of your
competition. For example, cloud computing shows tremendous promise,
but its development and widespread adoption has been slowed by a lack of
available IP address space under IPv4. IPv6 will provide the huge address space
and infrastructure needed for tomorrows cloud computing applications. With
built-in IPsec, IPv6 will allow organizations to ensure secure connectivity
to a private cloud without the use of complex VPN solutions. Future cloud
computing advances and new cloud-based services and business applications
will be dependent on IPv6.
Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
Reduce costs and risk during the transition Start planning now to avoid
pitfalls and align IPv6 adoption with your technology lifecycle. Implement IPv6
connectivity in tandem with other ongoing IT initiatives such as the rollout of
new hardware in order to reduce costs and risk.
Organizations need to be aware that there are real business benets to
transitioning to IPv6 and real business costs and risks to delaying.
2. Now is the Time to Start Planning Your
Transition to IPv6
Myth: IPv6 users currently represent a tiny percentage of Internet users.
My organization may need to think about IPv6 down the road, but there is
no urgency to start adopting the new protocol today.
Reality: IPv6 has already been adopted across many parts of the globe.
With the exhaustion of IPv4 address space, the percentage of users
connecting to the Internet via IPv6 will only increase. Start planning for
IPv6 now to stay ahead of the curve.
While it is true that IPv6-only Internet trafc represents a small amount of
all Internet trafc today and the changeover to a pure IPv6 Internet will not
happen overnight, organizations are mistaken if they think they have all the
time in the world to transition to IPv6. IPv6 address allocation is on the rise and
more widespread deployment of IPv6 networks will soon follow now that IPv4
space is depleted. So how much time do you have? The sources below provide
guidance on the recommended timeline for adopting IPv6:
Gartner predicts that, By 2015, 17% of global Internet users will be IPv6, with
28% of new Internet connections running the protocol (Source: Gartner
2011 MarketScope for DNS, DHCP and IP Address Management).
The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), the North American
Regional Internet Registry, has issued a warning to all organizations that they
must support IPv6 trafc externally by January 1st, 2012.
The Executive Ofce of the President (Ofce of Management and Budget
OMB) has mandated that US government agencies must upgrade public-
facing servers and services including Web, email, DNS and ISP services with
native IPv6 support by the end of scal year 2012 (September 30, 2012). The
OMB mandates that internal client applications that communicate with
public Internet servers and supporting enterprise networks must be
upgraded by the end of scal year 2014.
Organizations should not underestimate the amount of time and efort required
to adopt IPv6 within the enterprise. IPv6 is not something you can just switch
on overnight. As with any large-scale technology initiative, advanced planning is
required to ensure a smooth, seamless and cost-efective transition.
Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
3. IPv6 Is About More Than Just IP Address Space
Myth: My organization already has enough IPv4 address space to support
network and business growth, so we do not need to look at IPv6.
Reality: IPv6 is a next-generation protocol that brings new features and
functionality that is not available with IPv4. IPv6 opens up opportunities
for organizations to exploit new features to improve quality of service,
lower costs and enhance security.
Much of the public discussion around IPv6 has focused on the massively
expanded address space that the new protocol provides. Because IPv6 provides
so many IP addresses, every IP-enabled device will be able to have its own IP
address to operate in public space. Sensor networks and RFID inventory tracking
systems are just a couple of the many applications that will benet from IPv6
and its expanded address space.
But IPv6 is about more than just address space. The next-generation protocol
features many advances over IPv4 that promise to enable new classes of mobile
and embedded applications and services. Key IPv6 advances include:
Feature
Address families
Extension Headers
Jumbo frames
Neighborhood discovery
Path MTU discovery
Multicast improvements
IP mobility
Simplied routing
Quality of Service (QoS)
Security
Benet
Headers support extensions and options such
as authentication and encapsulation
Unicast, anycast and multicast capabilities
Enhanced streaming video capabilities
Find the closest instance of a resource
In IPv6, path MTU discovery is delegated to the end
points to increase efciency and avoid IP fragmentation
Enhanced multicast support with vastly increased
address space and more efcient mechanisms
Enhanced support for mobile IP addresses and
IP-enabled mobile devices
Simplied packet header and packet forwarding
process for more efcient end-to-end routing
Flow labeling capability for QoS
Extensions for authentication and security, and
built-in IPsec mandatory for all IPv6 devices
Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
Despite the reluctance of some organizations to move to IPv6, there are many
compelling reasons why IPv6 cannot come soon enough. IPv4 has shown its
age in meeting the demands of todays Internet and the ever-growing number
of IP-dependent devices. The new IPv6 protocol is designed to increase network
performance, simplify management, enhance security and extensibility and
make true peer-to-peer connectivity possible. With IPv6, organizations have a
tremendous opportunity to use the protocols new features and functionality
to optimize their networks. There is also the prospect to take advantage of
new IPv6-enabled applications and services that will change the way we
communicate and do business.
4. IPv6 is Diferent from IPv4
Myth: IPv6 is pretty much the same as IPv4, so adopting IPv6 should not be
an issue.
Reality: IPv6 networking concepts are very diferent from IPv4. There will be
a learning curve for adopting IPv6 and IPv4 expertise will not guarantee
IPv6 success. Do not under-estimate the efort required. Start planning now
to avoid IPv6 deployment headaches and pitfalls.
IPv6 is an entirely new and, for most, unfamiliar protocol. Its adoption will bring
new challenges and a steep learning curve. IPv6 addresses and networking
concepts difer from IPv4 is several signicant ways:
Length of IPv6 addresses IPv6 addresses are 128-bits long (four times longer
than IPv4 addresses) and are represented in hexadecimal, a format that is not
human-friendly. For IT staf and network administrators accustomed to easily
managing and memorizing IP addresses, the length of IPv6 addresses will be a
major challenge.
Multicast Unlike IPv4, IPv6 networks are not limited by broadcast. IPv6
multicast allows for the creation of larger, atter networks that will need to
managed and tracked diferently than with IPv4.
Multiple IPv6 addresses per interface Another management consideration is
the number of possible IPv6 addresses per interface. Not counting any multicast
addresses, three to four IPv6 addresses may be required per IPv6 interface.
Multiple IP protocols per client (IPv4 and IPv6) Because the transition from
IPv4 to IPv6 will be gradual, organizations will need to manage dual-stacked
IPv6 and IPv4 networks in parallel. A single client may have both an IPv4 and an
IPv6 address associated with it, creating new management challenges.
Size of IPv6 address space IT staf and network administrators will need
to keep track of thousands or even millions of IPv6 addresses. With such an
enormous address pool, IPv6 simply cannot be tracked on a spreadsheet
nding a specic address in a seemingly endless list of IPv6 addresses in Excel
would be like nding a needle in a haystack. Everyday tasks such as determining
the next available network will become anything but trivial.
Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
In addition, with IPv6 networks, there are no more static IP addresses, network
boundary calculations are more difcult and more advanced subnetting is
required. Because IPv6 is so diferent from IPv4, organizations are encouraged to
start working with IPv6 now to build their internal expertise and attain a comfort
level with the new protocol and the technologies required to support and
manage it such as DNS, DHCPv6, stateless address auto-conguration and IP
Address Management (IPAM).
5. Management is Essential for IPv6 Success
Myth: Organizations can continue to manage their IP address space with
IPv6 the same way they have always done with IPv4.
Reality: IPv6 is not human-friendly and will require automated IP Address
Management solutions to lessen the burden of management. Traditional
methods of managing IP space with spreadsheets, homegrown applications
or by memory will not scale to accommodate IPv6.
The transition to IPv6 will require IP Address Management (IPAM) solutions that
automate common administrative task and insulate network administrators from
the complexity of dening, allocating and managing IPv6 blocks, networks and
addresses.
Without IPAM, organizations will be unable to cope with the added complexity
of IPv6. An IP Address Management (IPAM) solution ofer capabilities for
controlling, automating and managing IPv6 address space and name space.
Key IPAM capabilities for IPv6 include:
End-to-end IPv6 Address Management including routing prefxes for global
unicast, subnet IDs and interface IDs
IPv6 DNS management including AAAA and the IPv6.ARPA reverse space
IPv6 DHCP management stateless option support (through discovery) for
address assignment
IPv6 network discovery to inventory your IPv4 and IPv6 networks and
resources
Parallel management of IPv6, IPv4 and dual-stacked networks and devices
With an IPAM solution in place, organizations can more easily discover existing
IPv4/IPv6 space, model new IPv6 networks and track dual-stacked IPv4/IPv6
systems key success factors for IPv6 adoption.
Since IPv6 addresses are more complicated than IPv4 and are no longer human-
friendly, IPAM will be an indispensible technology for planning, implementing
and managing IPv6 and dual-stacked IPv4/IPv6 networks.
Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
6. IPv6 Requires a Roadmap
Myth: Most of the burden of ensuring IPv6 connectivity lies with my Internet
Service Provider (ISP). There is not a lot that needs to be done internally to
implement IPv6 within the enterprise.
Reality: Implementing IPv6 connectivity within the enterprise will not be
a trivial undertaking. IPv6 readiness requires a roadmap and should be
planned and implemented in phases to avoid business or service disruptions
and to minimize transition costs.
While your ISP will play a role in ensuring your IPv6 connectivity (and you will
need to evaluate your ISPs IPv6 support), the implementation of IPv6 within
your enterprise will require considerable time and efort on the part of your
internal IT staf. You will need to assess your IPv6 readiness, update or replace
IP-aware devices or products, add new hardware components and deploy IPv6-
capable DNS and DHCP core services.
Prior to implementation, you will also need to plan and model your IPv6
networks and review your security policies and systems to determine whether
modications are needed for IPv6. The goal is to make the transition to IPv6 as
smooth and seamless as possible for end users and customers.
To prepare for IPv6, Gartner recommends that enterprises should conduct an
inventory of existing IPv4 addresses and utilization, assess current IPv6 readiness
and develop an IPv6 road map focused on communicating with external IPv6
endpoints (Source: Internet Protocol Version 6: Its Time for (Limited) Action
December 2010).

Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
The six phases of IPv6 readiness
An IP Address Management solution can bring a structured, best practice
approach to your IPv6 roadmap, helping you implement IPv6 readiness in
manageable phases. The chart below outlines the six phases of IPv6 readiness
and how IPAM supports each phase.
Phase How IPAM Helps
Automatically discover all IPv4 and IPv6 resources
on your network to prepare for IPv6 and identify
potential security gaps.
Plan your IPv6 environment based on a deep
understanding of your existing networks and
addresses that are already in use.
Create and model IPv6 blocks and networks
including local and global unicast address space for
optimal design. Add IPv6 hosts and dene IPv4,
IPv6 or dual addresses for each host.
Map IPv6 networks and addresses to existing IPv4
devices and track dual-stacked IPv4/IPv6 hosts by
DNS name, MAC address or device.
Deploy IPv6-enabled DNS hosts and create the
necessary IPv6 AAAA records and corresponding
NAPTR records alongside existing IPv4 DNS data.
Simplify the management of IPv6 and dual-stacked
environments with a cohesive, business-centric
view of your entire naming and addressing
infrastructure.
Discover
Plan
Model
Map
Implement
Manage
Six Things You Need to Know About IPv6
BlueCat Networks www.bluecatnetworks.com
Summing Up
The move to IPv6 is inevitable. IPv6 will require infrastructure changes and a
new approach to how IP address space is managed. With careful planning and
management, organizations can ensure a smooth and seamless transition to
this next-generation protocol. To help ease the transition to IPv6, organizations
should look at IP Address Management as a key part of their IPv6 roadmap.
Organizations that put an IPAM solution in place today will be well-positioned
and equipped to successfully plan and implement IPv6 whenever they are
ready. Not only does IPAM play a critical role in the early planning phases of
an IPv6 readiness initiative, it also simplies the ongoing management of IPv6
and dual-stack environments, enabling organizations to reduce transition and
management costs and risks. With IPAM, organizations can more rapidly realize
the many business and technical benets of IPv6.
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About BlueCat Networks
BlueCat Networks is a leading provider of smart, simple, scalable IP Address Management (IPAM) solutions.
With tightly integrated IP core services, our software solutions give organizations the power to centrally manage
everything IP in their network from a single pane of glass. The result is a dynamic network that is more resilient,
cost-efective and easier to manage.

Rated in the highest Strong Positive category in the Gartner 2011 MarketScope for DNS, DHCP and IP Address
Management, BlueCat Networks feature-rich and future-ready solutions have helped Global 2000 companies
and government agencies reduce costs and solve todays most critical IT challenges from accelerating
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and consolidation. We also help organizations manage growth and change by easing the transition to new
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