For core links it should IMHO be mostly possible to keep them IPv4/IPv6
dual-stack. When that is not the case one can always do minimal tunnels
inside the AS. Same for getting transit, it doesn't have to be directly
native, but when getting it try to keep the AS's crossed with a tunnel
for getting connectivity to a minimum (See also MIPP*).
Actually setting up a dual-stack infrastructure isn't very difficult-
anyone who has done so would probably agree. The problems (as has
already been pointed out) come from management, billing and the like.
Probably doing a trial on the customer base, especially having a group
of people who will give good bugreports and enabling them to use it, is
a good idea. A trick that might work there is to provide those people
with alternate caching DNS servers which do return AAAAs. This can thus
automatically be done using DHCP, when you have a user who is IPv6
enabled, steer them to the DNS servers that return AAAAs and presto,
they start using it. And when you are lucky it also actually works.
Plenty of ISP's have technically savvy customers- why not leverage these
people? My personal network is business class DSL from SpeakEasy
terminated by a Cisco running IPv6 firmware with a tunnel for IPv6. When I
opened a ticket to inquire about native IPv6 support I was told:
"Currently we do not offer IPv6 connectivity. It is not know if or when we
will offer this service." The response left me speechless.
That's still better than the response I got from the sales rep at AT&T
hosting operations who said "What's IPv6?"
In the next few years one of two things is going to happen:
1. We are going to run out of addresses-
or
2. India, China, Japan or another country is going to force a migration to
IPv6.
The end result is that content providers like Google and Yahoo are going
to be shut out of this new market while whatever provider does offer such
connectivity is going to see an explosion in traffic growth. That alone
should be economic incentive enough to provide IPv6 connectivity.
Can someone from Google or Yahoo (or any other major provider) comment on
their IPv6 plans?
Testing now with a small group of technically competent people would seem
to be a better idea than waiting until IPv6 is already widely deployed and
then trying to test a rollout.
Am I off my rocker?
-Don