LKNOG6 IPv6 Implementation Stories and Where to Start presentation by Terry Sweetser for LkNOG 6, held in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 18 to 23 November 2022.

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IPv6 Deployment
My Stories
Hard Lessons
IPv6 Deployment Strategy
APNIC Academy

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Terry Sweetser
Been doing this “Internet thing” since
1989.
Former APNIC Community Trainer, CTO,
Founder, Engineering Manager, etc
APNIC Training Delivery Manager for
South Asia and Oceania
Nationality: Australian
Languages: English
about.me/terry.sweetser

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“A great many stories I can tell you about network operations are not examples
of best practice but more cautionary tales of failures and unintended
consequences.” -- Terry Sweetser
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways
that won’t work.” -- Thomas Edison
Always be learning …

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So it started in 2015 …
IPv6?
How hard could that be?
Note: all data sources are APNIC unless otherwise stated.

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Deployment Success …
Source: Author

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Oh, 13.44% at 22 November 2016

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AS7477 “Looks OK?”

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AS1221 “Catch Them If You Can”

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Then I’m “NANOG” Famous …
Geoff Huston Andrew Khoo
Source: Author & Andrew Khoo

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Lately, AU looks better …

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Congratulations Sri Lanka!

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IPv6 Deployment Strategy
Where do you start?
AUDIT
• What is the current state of your
network and what capability
exists to support dual stack?
PLANNING
• Gather your information and
resources before making
decisions. Then DECIDE.
TEAMWORK
• Build your team up with
knowledge and resources: you
will need time and training.
CONSULT
• Talk to managers, executives and
customer experience teams.
More input = more traction.

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IPv6 Capability Considerations
When we say capable of ipv6, this refers to:
• People
– Engineers, Managers, Helpdesk, Field techs
• Equipment
– Core, Edge and Customer
• Capital
– Human, Financial
• Suppliers of Transit and Peering
– Are they capable?
CPE IPv6 Support is
often overlooked!

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IPv6 Planning Considerations
• Address Planning
– Number One issue raised time and again!
– “Measure Twice, Cut Once” as renumbering is always painful.
– Be Generous with what you keep in reserve.
– Review it against all progress during deployment.
• Deployment Planning
– You can only start at your border routers, why?
– Pick a service to do first, like DNS or WWW, end-to-end testing.
– Then slowly over Core, Intermediate and then BNG+CPE.

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IPv4 Depletion: “Blood From A Stone”
• NAT444 aka Double NAT aka The NAT has been NATed.
• NAT64/DNS64, aka “Hey, try this ipv6 address instead.”
• XLAT464 aka “You can’t bypass my NAT64 now.”
• Above will generate end user complaints.
• But you can deploy dual stack alongside above.
• The real solution is “IPv6 before IPv4” and make it stick.

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IPv4 Depletion …
• The cost of ipv4 is too high.
• Price plateau due to the finding
the maximum willingness-to-pay.
• Capital better spent elsewhere,
even on LSN and CGN hardware.
Market Signal:
• A price drop means IPv6 has
“won the deployment war” and no
one (sensible) is buying it.
IPv4 price history between 2014
and 2022 (data by IPv4.Global)
Source: https://www.ipxo.com/blog/ipv4-price-history/

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Terry Says
“If you have not talked to everyone about your big
technical plan for ipv6, you have not done enough
consultation.” – Terry Sweetser
“Move fast and break things.” – Mark Zuckerberg until 2014 ☺
“Prototype and test things in a lab, better to set that on
fire than your production network!” – Terry Sweetser

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Listen to everyone’s stories …
• https://blog.apnic.net/2018/09/24/ipv6-at-dialog-axiata-
switch-from-survival-to-innovation/
• Assessed Network, Significant Management Buy-In
• Testing, testing, and more testing

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How can we help you?
techassist@apnic.net
https://www.apnic.net/community/ipv6/deploy-ipv6/

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IPv6 grants are open for
applications
IPv6 Deployment Grants are
targeted to support concrete
IPv6 deployment plans from
network operators in the Asia
Pacific region at different
stages of development.
ISIF Asia Grants
Applications open all year round
https://isif.asia/apply

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APNIC Academy
Online Courses
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Self-paced courses Virtual Labs Technical Assistance
Book an Expert

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Join Orbit
• Evolution of mailing lists with social media features
• To make active, online participation easier
• THE place for the APNIC community to connect, discuss, and share
information for APNIC SIGs and working groups, community topics, general
discussion and announcements
https://orbit.apnic.net/news-feed/

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Next time: RPKI Validation
https://stats.labs.apnic.net/rpki/LK

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Questions?
Many thanks for your attention!