IPv6 mistakes, was: Re: Looking for an IPv6 naysayer...

Fri Feb 11 21:45:56 UTC 2011

On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 1:00 PM, Owen DeLong <owen at delong.com> wrote:
>>>>
>>> I think you'll be in for a surprise here, too. The 4G transition is already underway. For the vendors where 4G means LTE, IPv6 is the native protocol and IPv4 requires a certain amount of hackery to operate.
>>>
>>> In the WiMax case (Gee, thanks, SPRINT), things are a bit murkier, but, I think you will see WiMax go IPv6 pretty quickly as well.
>>>
>>> Yes, it will take a little longer to retire the 3G system(s) than many other parts of the internet, but, I think you will see most of it going away in the 5-7 year range.
>>>
>>
>> This is not quite the case.  2G / 3G / 4G largely refers to radio
>> interface aspects, and the packet core that moves IP packets is
>> largely the same.  I have a 5 year old 2G/GSM Nokia phone that support
>> IPv6 over cellular just fine on my network today.
>>
> Sure, there are some 3G systems that support IPv6, but, most carriers will
> probably roll IPv6 out as part of their 4G upgrade from what I have seen.
>

Yep, 4G projects should add IPv6, most people agree about this.

>> There are several LTE deployments around the world that are IPv4 only.
>>
> I think if you look under the hood, they may only provide internet routing
> for IPv4, but, I don't think they are IPv4 only across the radio.
>

Nope.

>> There is no hackery require to make IPv4 work in LTE.  LTE supports
>> IPv4, IPv6, and IPv4v6 bearers all the same... its just an option from
>> the core perspective, handset / chipset makers like to limit the
>> options to keep cost and variability down.
>>
> My understanding (admittedly second hand, so perhaps the engineer
> explaining it to me was mistaken) was that LTE was IPv6 and that IPv4
> was implemented on the radio side essentially as a 4in6 tunnel with a
> very very short-term DHCP lease for the v4 address.
>
>

Nope, it does not work this way.  There are tunnels for mobility, and
it is possible that IPv4 user plane packet get carried in IPv6 GTP
packets but that is the same case for IPv6 user plane also being in
IPv6 GTP packets.... but LTE generally does not use any DHCP to the
user.

Key point: LTE does not imply any mandatory IPv6 networks
infrastructure or services, but it does work with IPv6 and should be
deployed with IPv6.

Cameron
(who works in mobile, everyday)