RFC 1671 (rfc1671) - Page 1 of 8

IPng White Paper on Transition and Other Considerations

Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Next >
Network Working Group                                       B. Carpenter
Request for Comments: 1671                                          CERN
Category: Informational                                      August 1994


        IPng White Paper on Transition and Other Considerations

Status of this Memo

   This memo provides information for the Internet community.  This memo
   does not specify an Internet standard of any kind.  Distribution of
   this memo is unlimited.

Abstract

   This document was submitted to the IETF IPng area in response to RFC
   1550.  Publication of this document does not imply acceptance by the
   IPng area of any ideas expressed within.  Comments should be
   submitted to the  mailing list.

Summary

   This white paper outlines some general requirements for IPng in
   selected areas. It identifies the following requirements for stepwise
   transition:

   A) Interworking at every stage and every layer.
   B) Header translation considered harmful
   C) Coexistence.
   D) IPv4 to IPng address mapping.
   E) Dual stack hosts.
   F) DNS.
   G) Smart dual-stack code.
   H) Smart management tools.

   Some remarks about phsysical and logical multicast follow, and it is
   suggested that a model of how IPng will run over ATM is needed.

   Finally, the paper suggests that the requirements for policy routing,
   accounting, and security firewalls will in turn require all IPng
   packets to carry a trace of the type of transaction involved as well
   as of their source and destination.

Transition and deployment

   It is clear that the transition will take years and that every site
   will have to decide its own staged transition plan. Only the very
   smallest sites could envisage a single step ("flag day") transition,



Carpenter
Next >