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IPv4 to IPV6 Migration Strategies

  • Dual-stack: AKA, Native Mode. Both at the same time. Twice the administrative overhead
  • Tunneling: Send the IPv6 packets to tunnel to cross a IPv4 core.
  • Translation: Make the IPv6 packets back into IPv4 packets.
  • Hybrid Model: Uses ISATAP
  • ISATAP: Intra-Site Automatic Tunneling Addressing
  • Service Blocks: Combing tunnels with dual-stack.

Native Mode

Both stacks are running on clients. The clients request A and AAAA records near simultaneously.

Whichever DNS records return first decides if the next set of flows are v4 or v6.

This strategy is called “Happy Eyeballs” after the RFC. Do not punish users by “preferring” one protocol or another.

Do whatever is fastest.

Tunneling

  • Reduces MTU by 20 bytes.
  • The preferred tunnel is GRE.

Automatic Tunnels

6to4

  • Uses 2002::/16

6RD

  • The ISP uses its own addressing.

ISATAP — Intra-site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol

  • Uses these 32 bits to denotes ISATAP 0000:5EFE

Translation

  • Much like NAT

DNS64 And NAT64

DNS64

  • DNS creates synthetic AAAA records, so a v4 client can connect to a v6 service.

NAT64

  • A router translates IPv6 traffic to IPv4 traffic.

References

Happy Eyeballs Version 2: Better Connectivity Using Concurrency

Connection of IPv6 Domains via IPv4 Clouds

Framework for IPv4/IPv6 Translation

Last Modified • Wednesday, June 10, 2026. 12:13 am UTC+00:00 • Commit: f592c05