Internet Engineering Task Force F. Garneij Internet-Draft Ericsson Intended status: Informational August 30, 2010 Expires: March 3, 2011 IPv6 Deployment Related Terminology draft-garneij-ipv6-deployment-terminology-02 Abstract When discussing deployment matters related to IPv6, a first hurdle which is encountered is the lack of common terminology or at least basic terms used in various fora. As a contribution in this area, this document identifies and proposes a set of terms and their definitions. Status of this Memo This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." This Internet-Draft will expire on March 3, 2011. Copyright Notice Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved. This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License. Garneij Expires March 3, 2011 [Page 1] Internet-Draft Abbreviated Title August 2010 Table of Contents 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2. IPv6 Deployment Related Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.1. IPv6 Deployment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.2. IPv6-only Node . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.3. IPv6-only Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.4. IPv6-only Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.5. IP-agnostic Application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 2.6. IPv6 Migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.7. IPv6 Migration Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.8. IPv6 Transition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.9. IPv4-IPv6 Interconnection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2.10. IPv4-IPv6 Interworking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 3. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 4. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 6.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Appendix A. A tale of two countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Garneij Expires March 3, 2011 [Page 2] Internet-Draft Abbreviated Title August 2010 1. Introduction This document is intended to serve as a reference to IPv6 deployment related terminology. It is not the purpose of this document to introduce any new terminology into this area but only to provide definition of already existing and established terminology. 2. IPv6 Deployment Related Terminology 2.1. IPv6 Deployment IPv6 Deployment is the process of introducing IPv6 capabilities within a network or service (e.g., DNS, VoIP) environment, be it an environment where IPv4 is in use and/or the two IP versions co-exist or in a "Greenfield" deployment with no prior IP infrastructure. IPv6 Deployment in co-existence with an IPv4 environment may or may not have the goal of completing an IPv6 migration. IPv6 Deployment can be discussed from a node capability perspective as well as from an application capability perspective. 2.2. IPv6-only Node IPv6-only Node denotes an entity which embeds only IPv6 capabilities from an IP transfer standpoint. 2.3. IPv6-only Network IPv6-only Network defines a network mode where only IPv6 transfer capabilities are available for the delivery of IP packets. 2.4. IPv6-only Application IPv6-only Application refers to an application which is able to manipulate and handle IPv6 addresses (i.e., parse IPv6 addresses, use IPv6 addresses as a parameter when invoking internal or external functions, etc.). In particular, an IPv6-only Application is not able to invoke IPv4-specific functions such as IPv4 name resolution. 2.5. IP-agnostic Application IP-agnostic Application refers to an application or service being written in a way that makes it possible to operate using either IPv4 or IPv6 networking infrastructures, thus being IP version independent. However, an IP-agnostic program may change its behavior depending on which IP version currently being used to adapt its behavior to the specifics of the current IP version if needed (IP Garneij Expires March 3, 2011 [Page 3] Internet-Draft Abbreviated Title August 2010 version aware). 2.6. IPv6 Migration IPv6 Migration is the process of switching from an IPv4-only mode to an IPv6-only mode in a network or a service realm. Several intermediate steps can be implemented based on the local policies of the administrative entity which undertakes the IPv6 migration. In particular: o Co-existence phase: refers to the phase where both IPv4 and IPv6 capabilities are enabled and are in use. o Transition point: refers to a point in time when you turn IPv4 off, leaving the transisioning entities IPv6-only in the IPv6 Migration process. 2.7. IPv6 Migration Strategy Refers to the process of implementing an IPv6 Migration process within clear milestones and objectives. 2.8. IPv6 Transition IPv6 Transition defines the task of making the transition of a network to IPv6-only as the final stage of the IPv6 Migration process. IPv6 Transition Mechanisms [RFC4213] are designed to enable transition and to support IPv6 hosts and routers that need to interoperate with IPv4 hosts and utilize IPv4 routing infrastructures. 2.9. IPv4-IPv6 Interconnection IPv4-IPv6 Interconnection function refers to any function which is used to interconnect two heterogonous realms (i.e., IPv4 and IPv6). An interconnection function may be a translator, an encapsulator, a proxy, etc. 2.10. IPv4-IPv6 Interworking IPv4-IPv6 Interworking denotes to the ability of establishing successful communications between IPv4-only and IPv6-only nodes. The interworking relies on IPv4-IPv6 Interconnection function together with application-specific modules such as ALG (Application Level Gateway). Garneij Expires March 3, 2011 [Page 4] Internet-Draft Abbreviated Title August 2010 3. Acknowledgements Discussions and presentations during the 3GPP-IETF IPv6 Migration WS in Shanghai November 2009, especcially from Fred Baker, were essential to the creation of the content in this document. The author would like thank Mohamed Boucadair for providing valuable comments and additions to this document. 4. IANA Considerations This document includes no request to IANA. 5. Security Considerations There are no security considerations associated to this document. 6. References 6.1. Normative References [RFC4213] Nordmark, E. and R. Gilligan, "Basic Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers", RFC 4213, October 2005. 6.2. Informative References [EMIGRANTS] Vilhelm Moberg, "The Emigrants (novels)", . Appendix A. A tale of two countries Freely adapted from "The Emigrants" novels series [EMIGRANTS] Once upon a time there where two countries, IPv4 and IPv6. IPv4 was a crowded country with limited resources and a growing population tormented by starvation and diseases. On a distant shore across the sea was a brave new land, full of promises and plenty, called IPv6. Spurred by the opportunities of a better life in the distant country families started the process of migrating from their old country IPv4 to IPv6. In their new homeland the people there spoke another language called IPv6, while the newcomers only spoke IPv4, the language of their old country. Luckily many of the people that already lived in IPv6 also spoke IPv4, and being bi-lingual made it possible for them to talk to their new fellow countrymen and to Garneij Expires March 3, 2011 [Page 5] Internet-Draft Abbreviated Title August 2010 introduce them to the language of their new country. Eventually the immigrants also became bilingual and for some their frequent use of their new won language they made the transition from speaking IPv4 to IPv6. I was also common that the children of the immigrants only spoke IPv6, which was made possible because of the bi-lingual skills of their parents. Some of the older people, like grandparents than accompanied the families, kept their old habits and language which they spoke among their kin and friends from the old country. To talk with their grandchildren they had to rely on the bilingual parents to translate between children and grandparents. Eventually the need of being bi-lingual became less important as time went by, and when the need will go away only time can tell. Bi-lingual read Dual-Stack Starvation and diseases read Address pool depletion Migrate - move from one country or region to another and settle there Transition - a change of state Author's Address Fredrik Garneij Ericsson Linholmspiren 11 Gothenburg, 417 56 Sweden Phone: Email: fredrik.garneij@ericsson.com Garneij Expires March 3, 2011 [Page 6]