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PARTNER FOCUS

ADDRESSING

THE FUTURE

By Eduard Vasilenko and Latif Ladid, IPv6 Forum

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) has made remarkable progress in the past five years, a period that has seen the Mobile network
operators becoming its main adopters, due to 3GPP’s specification of IPv6 for the mobile networks. Since the early days of 3GPP, the IPv6
Forum has taken part as a market partner in the project. In this short article for Highlights, we will share our vision on the current up-take
and the prospect for the future deployment of IPv6.
Growing support brings market success The adoption of IPv6 allows such devices to be uniquely addressable
The mobile Internet is the driving force for market adoption, and user without having to work around all of the traditional NAT issues – so
device IPv6 support has been greatly improved by mobile OS vendors re-establishing e2e real-time apps and services used for a variety of
effectively making IPv6 mandatory for all applications. The support new use cases.
of IPv6 on websites, with major content providers having deployed it,
makes the whole ecosystem (user device – network – content) ‘IPv6 New services (VR, AR, IoT, security, and many others) demand new
ready’ for the first time in history. network functionality that is built in with IPv6-Only development.
Low latency, ultra-high bandwidth, deterministic quality, ubiquitous
IPv6 is growing faster than IPv4 ever did, especially among mobile connectivity, security, and automation are all pushing the need for
carriers, with 70% of IP traffic now IPv6 – increasing to a peak of further IP modernization.
99% for some trail blazing operators. Major Standards development
organizations (SDOs) have now prioritized IPv6 over version 4. The
Internet Architecture Board of the IETF has reported the increase in
both dual-stack (both IPv4 and IPv6) and IPv6-only deployments, as an
accelerating trend - Concluding that networking standards need to fully
support IPv6 and not assume IPv4 will do the job [1].

Many governments now consider the transition to IPv6 strategically
crucial to support ‘digital transformation’, setting deadlines on when
the progress should be completed. In France, the Regulator (ARCEP)
mandated IPv6 readiness by end of 2020 in France’s 5G spectrum
auction [2], while the US and China both imposed deadlines for the
transition to IPv6-Only. India has made IPv6 mandatory on all peering
links, while Malaysia has requested mandatory IPv6 certification for
all user’s devices. These are examples that demonstrate a successful
global direction of travel for IPv6.

New services for IPv6
There are three types of new services that push for IPv6 adoption:
• Services that need new IP addresses,
• Services that need end-to-end connectivity initiated in both IPv4 as a Service (IPv4aaS)
directions,
• Services that need new functionality. IPv4 as a Service (IPv4aaS)
When IPv6 traffic becomes dominant, carriers may face the issue of
VoLTE and Vo5G are the best examples of services that need huge how to deal with the remaining IPv4-based segment. Some well-
additional address space. IoT devices (including NB-IoT) and cloud established tools allow for the conversion to IPv6. There are two
services (especially with micro-services architecture) need additional distinct cases here:
address space too. In countries like India, subscriber base expansion is • About 20% of traffic is still directed to IPv4 websites. Carrier may
the primary reason for IPv6 adoption. translate them into IPv6 by NAT64 and represent it by DNS64 as
IPv6 reachable.
The End to end (e2e) connectivity model has been ‘broken’ on the • About 1% of traffic is originated as IPv4 despite the DNS64
Internet for more than a decade. In that time, it has not been possible proposition to use IPv6. It is primarily because of old devices
to initiate a connection to a user that is, in many cases, hidden behind connected by tethering. The major mobile OSes have NAT46
Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT was an industry workaround translation for such cases (Customer-side transLATor) that may be
for multiple users and devices to work off one IPv4 address, creating activated from the carrier’s side. This way, the tethered traffic could
issues now - particularly for IoT products. be also converted into IPv6.

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