RFC 1669 (rfc1669) - Page 2 of 4

Market Viability as a IPng Criteria

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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