What stage has IPv6 reached now? How to upgrade to IPv6?

Since Jon Postel defined IPv4 in RFC791 in 1981, IPv4 has been the king of the IP field for more than 30 years and has once become synonymous with IP. However, IPv4 is facing the crisis of exhaustion and has lost its practical value. In 1998, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) formally established the IPv6 successor protocol to deal with the long-term expected problem of IPv4 address exhaustion, aiming to replace IPv4 and become the backbone of the Internet.

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Today, the Internet world is slowly transitioning to the IPv6 standard. According to Google's public statistics, about 15% of global Internet traffic used the IPv6 protocol in 2016. By the end of 2017, about 20% of Internet traffic used the new protocol, and by 2019, the traffic using the new protocol may rise to 35%.

Is it urgent to switch to IPv6?

my country has been preparing for IPv6 for more than ten years. Academician Wu Jianping reflected on the development of IPv6 in China: "We got up early but arrived late." The promotion of IPv6 is urgent. Last November, the two offices issued the "Action Plan for Promoting the Large-Scale Deployment of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)", which made IPv6 begin to be implemented and enforced. The plan proposes to take 5 to 10 years to form an independent technology system and industrial ecology for the next generation of Internet, build an IPv6 commercial application network, and realize the deep integration and application of the next generation of Internet in various fields of economy and society.

How is IPv6 different from IPv4?

(1) Larger address space. The IPv4 IP address length is 32, which means there are 2^32 addresses; while the IP address length in IPv6 is 128, which means there are 2^128 addresses. To put it in an exaggerated way, if IPv6 is widely used, every grain of sand in the world will have a corresponding IP address.

(2) Smaller routing table. IPv6 address allocation follows the principle of clustering from the beginning, which enables the router to use one entry in the routing table to represent a subnet, greatly reducing the length of the routing table in the router and increasing the speed at which the router forwards data packets.

(3) Enhanced multicast support and flow-control support. This provides opportunities for the rapid development of multimedia applications on the network and provides a good network platform for quality of service (QoS) control.

(4) Support for auto-configuration has been added. This is an improvement and extension of the DHCP protocol, making network (especially LAN) management more convenient and faster.

(5) Higher security. The integrity and authenticity of each IPv6 data packet are guaranteed by encryption and anti-data packet spoofing technology. When using an IPv6 network, users can encrypt network layer data and verify IP packets, which greatly enhances network security.

Why should enterprises migrate to the IPv6 standard?

Network expert Jeff Carrell said he believes there are both internal and external factors in migrating to IPv6.

Carrell explained: “Within the enterprise, most modern operating systems already run with IPv6 enabled by default, and IT teams can run into issues if they don’t ensure and support the protocol by default running on their users’ operating systems.

From an external perspective, the problem is that much of the world, especially mobile devices and IoT traffic, is running over IPv6. "More and more entities around the world can only get IPv6 connectivity, and your forward-looking content may be important to these users," Carrell said.

Horley said it comes down to a simple question: "Do you want to be part of the Internet?" He added, "If organizations want to do business on the Internet, they need to have a way to interface with IPv6."

Will IPv4 devices still work/connect to the Internet?

IPv4 and IPv6 are not directly compatible, but researchers realized that they couldn't simply flip a switch and turn off IPv4 because most of the world still relies on it. IPv6 devices are built using a process called dual stack, which allows IPv6 and IPv4 to run side by side at the same time. IPv4 support is not going away anytime soon, and legacy IPv4 hardware should continue to work well into the future.

What are the top three reasons for small and medium-sized businesses to switch to IPv6?

1. Necessity

The simple fact is that IPv6 will soon be the only option for adding new devices or hosts to the Internet. SMBs should transition to IPv6 so that when the inevitable day comes when they no longer have to support IPv4, they can do so. Adopting IPv6 as soon as possible will allow SMBs to use IPv4 with peace of mind that it will not impact their business.

2. Efficiency

IPv6 simplifies and speeds up data transmission by processing packets more efficiently, eliminating the need to check packet integrity, saving valuable router time spent moving data. With enough IP addresses, businesses will not have to rely on NAT to connect to the Internet. IPv6 eliminates most of the address conflict issues common in IPv4 and provides more streamlined connections and communications for devices.

3. Security

When network gurus and researchers were developing IPv4 security, they didn’t really cross their minds. IPv4 was never considered secure. IPv6 was built from the ground up with security in mind, and many of the security features that were already piped behind IPv4 as optional features are integrated into IPv6 as default requirements. IPv6 encrypts traffic and checks packet integrity, providing protection for standard Internet traffic.

How to migrate to IPv6?

For organizations that decide to migrate to the new standard, American network experts Horley and Carrell recommend five key practices:

1. Train IT staff on IPv6 knowledge

"Some fundamental components of the IPv6 standard are completely different from IPv4," Carrell said. "IT teams need to do their homework to understand the new protocol and how it will impact infrastructure and applications."

Both Carrell and Horley said IPv6 training should extend beyond the network team to IT staff. "You should be training everyone across the board, educating and training them on what's going on," Horley said.

2. Analyze your organization’s current infrastructure and applications

Organizations also need to assess the IPv6 readiness of their existing environments. "You need to look at the overall infrastructure of your network environment, not just the switches, routers, network cards, and operating systems, but all the devices that support IPv6," Carrell said. He warned that an organization's legacy systems and applications may partially or completely support the new protocol.

3. Set up a test environment

Carrell also recommends that organizations set up a "test lab that simulates the organization's basic operations." Staff can enable IPv6 in that test environment and see what happens. He noted that IPv6 can sometimes cause unexpected problems with applications or hardware.

4. Write an IPv6 plan

Based on what they learn from training, evaluation, and testing, organizations can plan how to roll out new protocols in their own environments.

Horley noted that this planning process can also present unique opportunities for organizations to reconfigure their IT environments. “I think the mistake that people are seeing at this early stage is that they are evaluating and figuring out where they want to go, without taking advantage of the unique opportunities that v6 presents to change or redesign what they already have, whether that’s taking advantage of the new network capabilities that IPv6 provides or just an opportunity to structurally change the way the network operates to better meet the business needs of the organization,” he said.

5. Phased rollout of IPv6

Carrell said organizations should "do it in small batches in a place where it's easier to manage" when rolling out IPv6 in production. A phased rollout makes it easier to handle any issues that arise.

Horley encouraged companies that are just beginning the IPv6 migration process: "It's not as painful as people think it is. It's not as daunting as it should be."