RFC 1669 (rfc1669) - Page 2 of 4
Market Viability as a IPng Criteria
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
RFC 1669 IPng White Paper on Market Viability August 1994
internetworking protocol (IP version 4), promotion of an IPng
solution by computer system manufacturers should be recognized as
highly desirable but not sufficient on its own to ensure IPng
acceptance in the marketplace.
Can IPng compete against IPv4?
Given the large installed base of IPv4 systems, computer system
manufacturers will need to continue to provide IPv4 capabilities for
the foreseeable future. With both IPng and IPv4 support in their new
systems, users will be facing a difficult choice between using IPv4
and IPng for internetworking. Existing IPv4 users will migrate to
IPng for one of three possible reasons:
New functionality not found in IPv4
IPng needs to provide functionality equivalent to that currently
provided by IPv4. It remains to be seen whether additional
functionality (such as resource reservation, mobility,
autoconfiguration, autoregistration, or security) will be included in
the base specification of any IPng candidate. In order to provide
motivation to migrate to IPng, it will be necessary for IPng
proposals to offer capabilities beyond those already provided IPv4.
Reduced costs by using IPng
It is quite unlikely that migration to IPng will result in cost
savings in any organization. Migration to IPng will certainly result
in an increased need for training and engineering, and hence
increased costs.
To gain connectivity to otherwise unreachable IPng hosts
For existing sites with valid IPv4 network assignments, connectivity
is not affected until address depletion occurs. Systems with
globally-unique IPv4 addresses will have complete connectivity to any
systems since backwards-compatible communication is required of new
IPng hosts.
From the perspective of an existing IPv4 site, IPng provides little
tangible benefit until IPv4 address depletion occurs and
organizations reachable only via IPng appear. Given the absence of
benefits from migration, it is uncertain whether a significant base
of IPng sites will be occur prior to IPv4 address depletion.
Sites which are not yet running IP have little motivation to deploy
IPng for the immediate future. As long as IPv4 network assignments
are available, new sites have an choice to use IPv4 which provides
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