IPv4 address run-out has impacted the Internet community. Service providers must now face the dual challenges of sustaining and growing IPv4-based customers and services for the foreseeable future while executing on a strategy to transition to IPv6. The first challenge involves acquiring unused public IPv4 address space (difficult and potentially very expensive) or deploying IPv4 address sharing vehicles (e.g. CGN). The latter in the near term involves a number of different technologies and solutions including but not limited to dual-stack or IPv6-over-IPv4 tunneling (e.g. 6rd). Longer term transition will take on a more IPv6-centric profile with NAT64 and IPv4-over-IPv6 tunnels figuring prominently.
This session will look at the overall problem space and suite of solutions to address the dual challenges of run-out and transition. It will examine what is deployable right now (2011 and 2012) to address these issues and then what planners can expect to see over the next few years. Observations on different technologies including IPv4 address sharing (e.g. CGN, Stateful NAT64, DS-Lite AFTR), tunneling and translation will be discussed. A composite look at what operators are thinking about and doing as well as different architectural solutions will be presented. And finally some thoughts potential alternative strategies will be discussed.