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Palet Martinez 3 Internet-Draft The IPv6 Company 4 Intended status: Informational October 30, 2017 5 Expires: May 3, 2018 7 IPv6-only Terminology Definition 8 draft-palet-v6ops-ipv6-only-03 10 Abstract 12 This document defines the terminology regarding the usage of 13 expressions such as "IPv6-only", in order to avoid confusions when 14 using them in IETF and other documents, in reference to what is the 15 actual functionalities being used (not the actual protocol support). 17 Status of This Memo 19 This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the 20 provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79. 22 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering 23 Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute 24 working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet- 25 Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/. 27 Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months 28 and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any 29 time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference 30 material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." 32 This Internet-Draft will expire on May 3, 2018. 34 Copyright Notice 36 Copyright (c) 2017 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the 37 document authors. All rights reserved. 39 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal 40 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents 41 (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of 42 publication of this document. Please review these documents 43 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect 44 to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must 45 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of 46 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as 47 described in the Simplified BSD License. 49 Table of Contents 51 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 52 2. Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 53 3. Definition of IPv6-only . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 54 4. Dual-stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 55 5. Native dual-stack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 56 6. IPv6-only network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 57 7. IPv6-only WAN/access . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 58 8. IPv6-only LAN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 59 9. IPv6-only host/router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 60 10. Transitional IPv6 host/router . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 61 11. Other cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 62 12. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 63 13. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 64 14. Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 65 Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 67 1. Introduction 69 Due to the nature of the Internet and the different types of users, 70 parts of a network, providers, flows, etc., there is not a single and 71 easy way to categorically say something such as "IPv6-only". 73 The goal of this document is to depict this situation and agree in a 74 common language to be used for IETF and other documents, in order to 75 facilitate ourselves and future readers, the correct understanding of 76 what we are talking about. 78 Note that all the references in this document are regarding the 79 actual usage of IPv4/IPv6, not the support of those protocols by 80 nodes. For example, a device or access network may support both IPv4 81 and IPv6, however actually is only "natively" forwarding IPv6. 83 2. Context 85 The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is not something that can be done, 86 in the large majority of the cases, overnight and in a single step. 87 Consequently, in general, we are unable to talk about a whole network 88 having a "single and uniform" status regarding IPv6, at least not in 89 the early deployment stages of an operator network. 91 Even if possible, it is not frequent to deploy new IPv6 networks 92 which have no IPv4 connectivity at all, because at the current phase 93 of the universal goal of the IPv6 deployment, almost every network 94 still need to provide some kind of "access" to IPv4 sites. It is not 95 feasible for most of the operators to tell their customers "I can 96 provide you IPv6 service, but you will not be able to access all 97 Internet contents and apps, because some of them still don't support 98 IPv6, so you will miss every content that it is IPv4-only". 100 Some networks may have IPv6-only support for specific purposes. For 101 example, a DOCSIS provider may have decided that is worth the effort 102 to get rid of IPv4 for the management network of the cable-modems. 103 Or a network that provides connectivity only to IoT devices, may be 104 IPv6-only. 106 However, the "end-networks", in general, need to continue supporting 107 IPv4, as there are many devices or apps, in both corporate and end- 108 user networks (smartTV, IP cameras, etc.), which are IPv4-only and it 109 is not feasible to update or replace them. 111 In IPv6-only access networks, IPv4 support maybe provided by 112 mechanisms that allow "IPv4-as-a-service" (for example by means of 113 encapsulation and/or translation on top of IPv6). 115 3. Definition of IPv6-only 117 Consequently, considering the context described in the section above, 118 if we want to be precise and avoid confusing others, we can not use 119 the terminology "IPv6-only" in a generic way, and we need to define 120 what part of the network we are referring to. 122 From that perspective, we define the "IPv6-only" status in a given 123 part(s) of a network, depending on if there is actual native 124 forwarding of IPv4, so IPv4 is not configured neither managed. 126 4. Dual-stack 128 This can be applied to a host, router, link, network, etc. It means 129 that both, IPv4 and IPv6 are reachable, without specifying how. 131 5. Native dual-stack 133 This can be applied to a host, router, link, network, etc. It means 134 that both, IPv4 and IPv6 are configured/used natively (without the 135 need of transition mechanisms). 137 6. IPv6-only network 139 IPv6-only can be used only if, a complete network, end-to-end, is 140 actually not natively forwarding IPv4, which will mean that no-IPv4 141 addresses are configured, neither used for management, neither the 142 network is providing transition/translation support, neither there is 143 IPv4 transit/peering. 145 This is the end of the road of the IPv4-to-IPv6 transition, however 146 we aren't there yet, in general at the time of writing this document, 147 unless we are referring to special or disconnected (from IPv4) 148 networks. 150 7. IPv6-only WAN/access 152 IPv6-only WAN or access can be used only if the WAN or access network 153 isn't actually natively forwarding IPv4. 155 8. IPv6-only LAN 157 IPv6-only LAN(s) can be used only if the LAN(s), isn't actually 158 natively transporting IPv4. 160 9. IPv6-only host/router 162 IPv6-only host/router can be used only if the host/router, isn't 163 actually using/forwarding IPv4, so IPv4 is unconfigured and/or 164 disabled in the external facing interfaces. 166 Internal interfaces, such as loopback, can still be using IPv4 167 (internally). 169 10. Transitional IPv6 host/router 171 Transitional IPv6 host/router is a dual-stack host/router with 172 IPv6-only WAN where IPv4 service support is provided by means of 173 transition mechanism, "as-a-service". 175 11. Other cases 177 Similar other cases or parts of the network can be considered as 178 IPv6-only if there is no actual native forwarding of IPv4 and in that 179 case, after "IPv6-only" some word/short text pointing to the specific 180 case or part of the network needs to be used. 182 12. Security Considerations 184 This document does not have any specific security considerations. 186 13. IANA Considerations 188 This document does not have any IANA considerations. 190 14. Acknowledgements 192 The author would like to acknowledge the inputs from Tim Chown, Noah 193 Maina, Lee Howard, Azael Alcantara and Marcos Sanz Grosson. 195 Author's Address 197 Jordi Palet Martinez 198 The IPv6 Company 199 Molino de la Navata, 75 200 La Navata - Galapagar, Madrid 28420 201 Spain 203 Email: jordi.palet@theipv6company.com 204 URI: http://www.theipv6company.com/