IPv4 address exhaustion is no longer theoretical—it's been reality for years. Regional Internet Registries have depleted their free pools. New addresses come only from transfers, and prices continue climbing. IPv6 deployment has shifted from optional to necessary.
Why Transition Now
Beyond address availability, IPv6 offers operational benefits. Native end-to-end connectivity eliminates NAT complications. Larger address spaces simplify network design. Auto-configuration reduces provisioning complexity. Major content providers optimize heavily for IPv6, sometimes delivering better performance to IPv6 users.
Customer devices increasingly arrive IPv6-ready. Mobile networks have deployed extensively. Desktop operating systems prefer IPv6 when available. Delaying transition means eventually scrambling to catch up.
Transition Technologies
Dual-stack deployment runs IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously, allowing gradual migration without breaking existing services. This approach requires IPv4 addresses during transition but provides cleanest operational model.
NAT64/DNS64 enables IPv6-only networks to access IPv4 content through translation gateways. This approach conserves IPv4 addresses but adds complexity and can break some applications.
6to4 and Teredo tunnel IPv6 over IPv4 infrastructure. These technologies helped early adoption but introduce reliability concerns and are generally being phased out.
Practical Deployment Steps
Begin with your own infrastructure. Internal systems, management networks, and service platforms should support IPv6 before customer-facing deployment. Staff need familiarity with IPv6 troubleshooting before handling customer issues.
Request IPv6 allocations from your RIR. Allocation policies are generous—you'll receive far more addresses than you could exhaust. Document your addressing plan; IPv6 offers enough space for logical, hierarchical subnetting.
Enable dual-stack on customer connections progressively. Monitor for issues. Content provider dashboards show IPv6 traffic percentages, providing visibility into adoption progress.
Customer Communication
Most customers won't notice IPv6 deployment—and that's the goal. Avoid creating concern about changes they can't evaluate. Technical customers may appreciate knowing you're modernizing infrastructure.