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With the number of IPv4 addresses almost completely depleted, the implementation of IPv6 has become a priority for many organizations. However, it is not all that feasible to just switch everything over to IPv6 without some type of transition. This article takes a look at the methods that can be used to transition to IPv6 from IPv4.
There are a couple of main methods that can be used when transitioning a network from IPv4 to IPv6; these include:
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The simplest approach when transitioning to IPv6 is to run IPv6 on all of the devices that are currently running IPv4. If this is something that is possible within the organizational network, it is very easy to implement. However, for many organizations, IPv6 is not supported on all of the IPv4 devices; in these situations other methods must be considered.
Most people with some networking knowledge are familiar with the concept of tunneling; a given packet is encapsulated into a wrapper than enables its transport from a source to destination transparently where it is decapsulated and retransmitted. There are a number of different tunneling methods that exist for IPv6, many that are integrated as part of Cisco and other manufactures certification tests. The following list shows the different available tunneling methods:
Unlike the above discussed tunneling methods, a translation method provides a way to translate IPv6 to IPv4 traffic and vice versa. When using translation, the traffic is not encapsulated but is converted to the destination type (be that IPv4 or IPv6). There are two methods that are typically used with translated IPv6 networks; these include:
One of the most important parts of implementing IPv6 is being able to gracefully transition from IPv4. This in itself is a giant undertaking and cannot simply happen in a short amount of time. The methods discussed in this article can each be used as options when beginning an IPv6 deployment and should each be looked over for applicability depending on the specific requirements of an organization. Hopefully the information contained within this article will provide the reader a starting point to this process.
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