IPv6 on SOHO routers?

Thu Mar 13 18:34:39 UTC 2008

Leo Bicknell wrote:
> In a message written on Wed, Mar 12, 2008 at 03:06:24PM -0500, Frank Bulk - iNAME wrote:
>> Furthermore, he stated that networking equipment companies like Cisco will
>> be moving away from IPv4 in 5 years or so.  This is the first time I've
>> heard this posited -- I had a hard believing that, but he claims it with
>> some authority.  Anyone hear anything like this?  My own opinion is that
>> we'll see dual-stack for at least a decade or two to come.
> 
> ISP's are very good at one thing, driving out unnecessary cost.
> Running dual stack increases cost.  While I'm not sure about the 5
> year part, I'm sure ISP's will move to disable IPv4 support as soon
> as the market will let them as a cost saving measure.  Runing for
> "decades" dual stacked does not make a lot of economic sense for
> all involved.
> 

labels in the core, for a long while.

This transition will be about as smooth as the US moving to the metric 
system. (e.g. everyone buys soda in two liter bottles, wine in 750ml 
bottles, but can't mentally buy liters of gasoline....or 1.1826 liters 
of beer, aka 'forty').

Same could be said for the Auto Industry. Thank [some dead 
mathematician] that 3/4" lug nuts are also 19mm or we'd really be 
screwed :-)

No flag day here (I would pay serious money to see that happen though, 
it would be a total riot from the get go).  There is some interesting 
movement in the US in particular to put up 'enough' v6 window dressing 
to be compliant with US gov't contracts and so on which will match up 
with the OMB [unfunded] mandate to be IPv6 compatible by this june.

As for the SOHO, not sure if anything other the next chip revision and 
firmware are needed. Besides, will they be NAT boxen with a dozen 
application layer gateway helpers like today?  Or will they be actual 
firewalls. Hard to say which is more difficult or code complex. With the 
pace of silicon replacement in SOHO product lines, the next silicon spin 
could do the either stack or both for the same cost.

best regards,
andy