An ADTRAN White Paper

®
IPv6 in the U.S. Market—
Has it Arrived
 IPv6 in the U.S. Market
The Push for IPv6
For years, Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) has
been looming as the solution to the numerous per-
ceived problems of the IPv4 networked world.
Benefits such as increased address space, enhanced
security, and greater functionality have been used as a
justification for a transition to IPv6. Despite the
improvement IPv6 offers, it is increasingly apparent
that the time and effort necessary to begin the transi-
tion are delaying its widespread deployment. This can
be attributed to many factors:
■ The United States (U.S.) pioneered the
IPv4 infrastructure
■ The U.S. market has a huge percentage of the
worldwide allocation of IPv4 address space
■ Technologies that increase the efficiency of
IPv4 network addressing to a sufficient level
are widely available
■ Security measures for IPv4 were developed out
of necessity, reducing the need for a change based
on secutity issues alone
With these factors taken into consideration, it
should also be noted that considerable costs are
involved in a transition to IPv6, and while IPv4 is a
well established, mature technology, IPv6 is not yet
widely supported.
2 • IPv6 in the U.S. Market
Address Shortage
The push for a transition to IPv6 was driven, at first,
by a fear that the available supply of IP addresses
would soon come to an end. IPv4 addresses are 32
bits long, while IPv6 addresses are 128 bits. While
IPv4 offers approximately 200 million assignable
addresses, IPv6 provides trillions. The need for such
an addressing system can be attributed to the prolifer-
ation of Internet-enabled devices, Internet technolo-
gies, and the worldwide increase of Internet users.
Countries such as China, Korea, Japan, India, and
Russia have a growing need for IP connectivity.
Likewise, there is rapid growth in the number of IP-
enabled user devices being deployed such as mobile
phones, appliances, and vehicles. To address this
growth, IPv6 provides the increased address space
needed to accommodate a networked world.
However, in the United States, this address short-
age has not been realized. As much of the world nears
an Internet address crunch and global momentum is
growing for a new addressing system, few analysts
expect the problem to affect the North American
market in the near future. While other countries
missed out on the "gold rush" of address acquisition
and have to find alternative means of addressing, the
United States owns almost 70% of all available IPv4
address space. Because of this, most large enterprises
have address blocks so large they have never felt any
crunch for addressing IPv6 at all.
 ®

CIDR Security Concerns

Another reason for the longevity of IPv4, despite it’s
limitations in address space, can be attributed to
Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR), which has
resulted in much more efficient distribution of
addresses. The original approach of assigning Class A,
B, and C addresses with a generalized network prefix
resulted in very inefficient address allocation. In fact,
it was originally estimated that all available IP
addresses would be allocated by 1994, with only 3% of
them actually being utilized. CIDR has resolved this
problem. Supported in modern routing protocols
such as RIPv2, OSPF, and BGPv4, CIDR assigns
addresses in much smaller increments than the class
identifiers of 8, 16, or 24 bits. Using prefixes anywhere
from 13 to 27 bits, address blocks can be assigned in
groups as small as 32 hosts or as large as 500,000
hosts. This provides address space that more closely
fits an organization's specific needs.
While IPv6 has IPSec inherent, companies are already
using IPSec or Secure Socket Layer (SSL) VPNs on
IPv4 networks. With the same technology available on
a protocol already implemented on the network, it is
difficult to justify a transition to IPv6 on the basis of
security alone. In fact, during the early stages of the
transition, IPv6 may actually incur additional security
risks when compared with an IPv4 network. Since the
transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will not happen immedi-
ately, newly implemented IPv6 equipment generally
needs to remain compatible with IPv4 devices. This
results in the need to secure two networks simultane-
ously. Furthermore, since IPv6 has had limited use as
a mainstream protocol, during the early stage of IPv6
deployment vulnerabilities have a greater potential to
be exposed. As an example, a flaw that could cause a
Denial of Service (DoS) attack was recently discov-
ered in a leading vendor’s IPv6 routing software.

NAT
Furthermore, Network Address Translation (NAT),
allows administrators to hide up to 254 computers
behind each globally routable IPv4 address. This not
only helps conserve IP addresses, but also provides
security by hiding the IP addresses of internal devices.
It also provides anonymity as well as an additional
security point on the network. One issue with NAT is
the resulting break in end-to-end applications behind
NAT devices. However, current peer-to-peer technolo-
gies are able to circumvent NAT, resulting in secure
end-to-end communication without a conversion to
IPv6. NAT, in combination with CIDR and the U.S.
market’s abundant supply of IPv4 address space,
results in more than enough IPv4 addresses for the
U.S. market for years to come.

An ADTRAN White Paper • 3

 Limited Demand in U.S. Market
With little momentum for an IPv6 transition in
the U.S. market, many experts feel that what is being
done domestically with IPv6 can be perceived as an
attempt on the part of equipment vendors and
service providers to differentiate themselves. With
no motivation to migrate, little support is available
for IPv6 networks in the U.S. As of 2004, only one
Internet Service Provider (ISP) in the nation, Verio,
provided IPv6 connectivity. These addresses are gen-
erally only used for academia, test beds, and research.
In fact, during the IPv6 public meeting in July 2004,
it was announced that only 75 IPv6 addresses had
been allocated in the U.S. thus far.
Currently, the only significant push for IPv6
technology is in the U.S. military. The Department
of Defense (DoD) plans to transition its existing
Global Information Grid Network, based at
University of New Hampshire, to IPv6 by 2008.
However, the U.S. government has the benefit of
a unique network and a substantial budget. In the
battlefield, such an addressing system may be benefi-
cial, while in the domestic enterprise market there is
little business justification to migrate. The general
consensus in the U.S. market is that IPv6 is something
businesses are going to look into, but not implement
in the near future.
4 • IPv6 in the U.S. Market
Cost to Transition
The cost to transition to an IPv6 network is another
deterrent. This involves upgrading IP stacks on
network gear as well as end nodes such as PCs and
servers. Furthermore, applications will need to be
rewritten to handle the increased size of an IPv6
address. There is a significant amount of money
associated with reconfiguring and replacing these
devices. Network equipment will need to be upgraded
or replaced, software reprogrammed, subnets reallo-
cated, and all hard-coded IP addresses changed.
This will not be a simple task. Delays and downtime
as a result of installations, configurations, and
troubleshooting will be extremely costly.
Training costs are another concern. Businesses
will need to think about 128-bit addressing based
on MAC addresses in hexadecimal format. New
approaches to configurations, address assignment,
and security are involved. This new approach will
be a difficult change for many organizations.
Issues with Migration
A transition to IPv6 will not happen overnight.
Rather, there will be a period of transition when
both protocols are in use over the same infrastruc-
ture. When the time comes, making an upgrade to
IPv6 necessary in the U.S. market, it will be a gradual
process involving nodes that can communicate with
each other in a mixed environment. As a general
methodology, migration from IPv4 to IPv6, the
following steps must be performed:
■ Upgrade applications to be independent of IPv6
or IPv4 – Applications must be changed so that
name resolution, socket creation, and other func-
tions are independent of the IP version being

used. This is done using a dual IP layer, which
includes both an IPv4 and IPv6 Internet layer.
This is the mechanism used by IPv4/IPv6 nodes
allowing communication with either IPv4 and
IPv6 nodes. A dual IP layer contains a single
implementation of host-to-host layer protocols
such as TCP and UDP. All upper layer protocols
in a dual IP layer implementation can communi-
cate over IPv4, IPv6, or IPv6 tunneled in IPv4.
IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling has some drawbacks,
such as slower throughput and greater use of
staff time as a result of the requirment to config-
ure tunnel endpoints into the encapsulating
node, a tedious and time-consuming process.
■
Update the DNS infrastructure to support
IPv6 addresses – Reliance on a DNS server is a
necessity with IPv6. Upgrading the DNS infra-
structure consists of populating the DNS servers
with records to support IPv6 name-to-address
and address-to-name resolutions. This renum-
bering process can take a significant amount
of time. While this may not be a problem in
small networks, on larger networks this process
can take hours or even days, resulting in
significant downtime.
■
Upgrade routing infrastructure for native IPv6
routing and convert IPv6/IPv4 nodes to IPv6-
only nodes – IPv4/IPv6 nodes can be upgraded
to be IPv6-only nodes. This should be a long-
term goal because it will take years for all
current IPv4-only network devices to be
upgraded to IPv6-only. For those IPv4-only
nodes that cannot be upgraded to IPv4/IPv6
or IPv6-only, costly translation gateways must
be employed to allow IPv4-only nodes to com-
municate with IPv6-only nodes.
®
Concluding Thoughts—Waiting for the
Technology to Mature
There is little doubt that IPv6 is here to stay.
Eventually, it will have a significant impact on the
worldwide telecommunications infrastructure.
However, with the majority of allocated IPv4 address
space belonging to the U.S. market, technologies
readily available to compensate for the diminishing
supply of available IPv4 address space, and the signifi-
cant cost savings associated with maintaining an IPv4
network for the foreseeable future, a transition to
IPv6 in the U.S. market is simply not currently
justifiable. IPv4 is a mature, well-tested technology,
and when implemented properly, it is very secure as
well. In the U.S. market, it is apparent that the bene-
fits gained from migrating to IPv6 currently do not
outweigh the costs and complications involved in
this transition.
While IPv6 has been finalized, many experts feel
that additional testing is needed to ensure complete
interoperability. This involves testing among different
manufacturers’ IPv6 hardware and software, as well
as interoperability testing between IPv6 and IPv4
networks. Furthermore, many proposed standards
for IPv6 are still awaiting approval. As a result, many
vendors have decided to delay providing IPv6 support
until the technology has matured and a greater need
for IPv6 is present.
An ADTRAN White Paper • 5
ADTRAN, Inc.
Attn: Enterprise Networks
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256 963-8000 voice
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®
About ADTRAN
ADTRAN, Inc. is one of the world’s most successful
network access equipment suppliers, with a 17-year
history of profitability and a portfolio of more than
1,300 solutions for use in the last mile of today’s
telecommunications networks. Widely deployed by
carriers and enterprises, ADTRAN solutions enable
voice, data, video, and Internet communications
across copper, fiber, and wireless network infrastruc-
tures. ADTRAN solutions are currently in use by
every major domestic service provider and many
international ones, as well as by thousands of public,
private and governmental organizations worldwide.
ADTRAN, Inc.
901 Explorer Boulevard
Huntsville, Alabama 35806
P.O. Box 140000
Huntsville, Alabama 35814-4000
800 9ADTRAN 256 963-8000 voice
256 963-8004 fax
info@adtran.com e-mail
www.adtran.com web site
ADTRAN, Inc. is an Equal Opportunity
Employer committed to utilizing Minority
Business Enterprises (MBE), Woman-Owned
Business Enterprises (WBE) and Disabled Veteran
Business Enterprises (DVBE) whenever possible
and practical for procurements supporting
ADTRAN and our customers.
Copyright © 2005 ADTRAN, Inc. All rights
reserved. ADTRAN is a registered trademark
of ADTRAN, Inc. All other trademarks and
registered trademarks are the property of their
respective owners.
EN697B