It is clear that for your system to evolve with changing standards, you must understand what your current network and devices are capable of. Once you understand what you are working with, you can plan accordingly and make careful choices to future-proof your network.
Gaining an understanding of where you are and where you intend to be is the main goal. And when theory and reality collide, as they often do, it's always a good maintain a sense of humor. Given the challenges of matching the correct devices and solution for a network, IPv6 fortunately provides several options to ease things a bit.
With the ability of IPv6 to coexist with IPv4, there are several transition strategies for organizations:
● Tunneling: Comparatively simple way to start using IPv6, packages traffic from IPv6 devices (cameras, routers and more) within IPv4 packets so they can sent over an IPv4 infrastructure.
● Dual-Stack: Allows both IPv4 and IPv6 packets to travel across the network. While this approach better accommodates a gradual transition over several years, it requires that all network components be able to operate both protocol stacks.
● Translation: Enables an end-to-end IPv6 capability by implementing application-level translation between IPv4 and IPv6 on the host or router.
Even with multiple deployment strategies and the inherent flexibility of IPv6, adoption has been slow at best. The reality is that while IPv6 was primarily developed to solve the dwindling IP address issue, it delivers a range of capabilities that tip the scale in favor in making the transition sooner than later. IPv6 offers a host of performance advancements that most would expect of a next-generation protocol, as well as improvements and fixes that make deploying and managing IP networks a less daunting proposition. These include:
● Lower Software Requirements: Whereas IPv4 devices often require additional software for functions such as security, IPv6 devices have built-in software to handle those functions.
● Easier Network Deployment: When rolling out largescale IPv6 networks, components are automatically configured (true plug-and-play). In addition, as a host device is moved within a network, routing is dynamically reconfigured.
● Easier Network Management: With auto-configuration, there is no need to run network services and servers separately. Plus, as mentioned previously, IPv6 can route and coexist over networks that are still using IPv4.
● Improved Multicasting: With IPv4, multicasting capabilities must be added separately, and are often slow and difficult to manage. With IPv6, multicasting is built-in and requires minimal management from IT personnel.
● Packet Prioritization: IPv6 enables routers to treat packets differently, based on the type of traffic they carry. For example, a packet containing surveillance video data can have priority over a packet containing standard accounting data to ensure the quality of the video stream is maintained at the highest possible level.
● Enhanced Security: Security features developed for IPv6 — referred to as IP security — are embedded into the protocol, as opposed to the add-on security capabilities required by IPv4.