Practice

Changeover to IPv6: What businesses should already take heed of now

Just a year ago now, the media were full of catastrophe reports about the imminent collapse of the internet. The reason: it is a known fact that the roughly 4 billion IPv4 addresses will soon all be completely distributed.

Of course, the address space of the new version 6 internet protocol now promises help here. IPv6 works with addresses which are no longer 32 bits in length but instead 128 bits long. Correspondingly, the address space of IPv6 contains the inconceivably large number of over 3.4·1038 different IP addresses. That amounts to several dozen octillion (1027) addresses per capita of the world population.

The problematic factor with IPv6 however, is the fact that it is not downward compatible: old IPv4 addresses are useless in the IPv6 address space because the IP worlds v4 and v6 are incompatible. The question which many of our customers are asking in this connection is of course: when should the changeover start? The simple answer is: now. And namely in the form of a parallel operation of IPv4 and IPv6.

IPv6 and IPv4 in parallel -operation

A dual stack approach, i.e. a parallel operation of IPv4 and IPv6 infrastructure for the transition period until IPv4 is finally switched off, is not a problem in principle and certainly no problem at all for a backbone operator like Plus.line AG. Our company’s own backbone has been IPv6-capable since Spring 2008. Since then, the Heise publishing company for example has made its IPv6 programme available via our backbone, and also at the DE-CIX, the German internet exchange in Frankfurt, there is already the possibility of IPv6 routing: Where IPv6 is not yet available IPv6 data packages can simply be sent using an IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnel via IPv4 networks.

Load balancing for IPv6

The usual load balancers in server farms work a great deal with network and port address translation and are restricted to the IPv4 address space. At the same time, load balancing is such central and important function that it cannot be simply switched off. We too as hosters are affected by this load balancing problem. At some parts of the infrastructure, IPv6-capability simply means doubling the technical equipment. If such a load balancer is then IPv6-capable it can of course make services accessible from outside under v6 although the actual server farm which is behind it, as hitherto, responds via NAT and IPv4. In this way, even a large web presence, which is really based on IPv4, can nevertheless be made accessible via IPv6.

Crucial: start gathering -experience now

The changeover from IPv4 to IPv6 is a process which in all probability will take years. A long time will pass before the very last IPv4 address is finally shut down. Because IPv6 is definitely on its way however, it makes very good sense to get involved with IPv6 as early as possible. This does not involve shutting down IPv4 abruptly from one day to the next, but rather first configuring IPv6 parallel – in order to achieve a smooth changeover.

In principle, it is very easy for a business to obtain access to an IPv6 network: The prerequisite is IPv6 on the PC, an IPv6-capable router or an IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnel until the next IPv6-capable router. Parallel operation with IPv6 simply makes sense – if only for the reason that a business can gather experience and collect valuable problem knowledge in this way. A company can only learn which specific difficulties will occur in a company network with the name service or on the company website if it actually tests the IPv6 technology.

The most important advice which we as an ISP can give to our business customers in connection with the IPv6 changeover is perhaps the following: it does no harm to start concerning oneself with this immediately. Indeed, this is highly recommended – and of course we at Plus.line AG are always on hand to help our customers with words and deeds regarding questions concerning the IPv6 changeover.