An examination of next generation IP migration techniques: Constraints and evaluation

IP Next Generation (IPng) or IPv6 engineered by IETF is the successor of IPv4, the contemporary version of Internet Protocol. IPv6 is designed to solve the long term performance, reliability and scalability problems of IPv4. Although IPv6 implementation is yet to attain a maturity level, its success will ultimately depend on its implementation in a broader perspective. The IPv6 network migration is seen as an intricate daunting task impeding its evolution. Nevertheless with emergence of new IPv6 migration techniques, its complete integration with current IP networks seems to be achievable in near future. This paper attempts to examine current IP transitioning techniques and outlines the key deployment issues, challenges and migration paths. The paper also makes an empirical evaluation of three most commonly used transition mechanisms namely Dual Stack, Automatic 6to4 Tunneling and Manual 6in4 Tunneling and makes a comparison of performance metrics with native IPv6 environment. The simulation results are significant and give an insight about choosing best transition technique and an idea about network migration and capacity planning. The simulation-based comparison has been carried using OPNET (ver. 14.5) simulation framework.