MAP-T Trial in ChinaTelecom
draft-xcf-v6ops-chinatelecom-deployment-00

Abstract

With the depletion of the IPv4 address space, large-scale SPs are now faced with the real option to deploy IPv6 in a timely manner. In order to achieve smooth transition to IPv6, migration tools should be introduced for different deployment models. Among different IPv6 transition mechanisms, MAP-T is a stateless translation method which can directly translate IPv4 packet to IPv6 packet. This document describes the challenges and requirements for large SP to deploy IPv6 in operational network, the experimental results of MAP-T in our laboratory and the field trials in large SP operational network.

Status of This Memo

This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. The list of current Internet-Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

This Internet-Draft will expire on January 7, 2016.

Copyright Notice

Copyright (c) 2015 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.

This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.

Table of Contents

• 1. Introduction
• 1.1. Major Motivation
• 1.2. IPv4-as-a-Service Requirements
• 2. Architecture and Methodology
• 2.1. Major Design Considerations
• 2.2. Regulatory Considerations
• 2.3. Security Considerations
• 2.4. Operational Considerations
• 2.5. End-User Experience Considerations
• 3. Design and Deployment
• 3.1. Lab Test
• 3.2. Field Trial
• 4. Observations and Experiences
• 4.1. Effects on End-User
• 4.2. Effects on Internal Staff
• 4.3. Effects on Business
• 5. Summary: Post-mortem Report
• 5.1. Deviations from IETF Documents
• 6. IANA Considerations
• 7. Security Considerations
• 8. Acknowledgements
• 9. References
• 9.1. Normative References
• 9.2. Informative References
• Authors' Addresses

1. Introduction

The dramatic growth of the Internet is accelerating the exhaustion of available IPv4 addressing pool. It is widely accepted that IPv6 is the only real option on the table for the continued growth of the Internet. However, IPv6 deployment is a huge systematic project and a lot of challenges will arise especially in large SP operational network.

1.1. Major Motivation

In order to achieve smooth transition to IPv6, migration tools should be introduced for different deployment models, among which MAP-T [I-D.ietf-softwire-map-t] is a stateless translation mechanism with good scalability. This document describes the challenges and requirements for large SPs in IPv6 transition period. Then, we introduce MAP-T experimental results in our laboratory and the field trials in large SP operational network.

1.2. IPv4-as-a-Service Requirements

In order to facilitate smooth IPv6 migration, some factors need to be taken into consideration especially for large SPs. There are ten major requirements:

1. It should deploy in an incremental fashion and the overall transition process should be stable and operational.
2. It should largely reduce IPv4 public address consumption.
3. It should accelerate the deployment of IPv6, rather than just prolonging the lifecycle of IPv4 by introducing multiple layers of NAT.
4. There should be no perceived degradation of customer experience. As a result, IPv6 transition mechanisms should provide IPv4 service continuity.
5. It should achieve scalability, simplicity and high availability, especially for large-scale SPs.
6. It should have user management and network management ability.
7. It should support user authentication, authorization and accounting as an essential part of operational network.
8. Most SPs need some kind of mechanisms to trace the origin of traffic in their networks. This should also be available for IPv6 traffic.
9. It should have good throughput performance and massive concurrent session support.
10. It should maintain the deployment concepts and business models which have been proven and used with existing revenue generating IPv4 services.

2. Architecture and Methodology

2.1. Major Design Considerations

The major objective listed in the following is to verify the functionality and performance of MAP-T:

• Verify how to deploy MAP-T in practical network.
• Verify what applications can be used in MAP-T.
• Verify what Operating Systems can be supported in MAP-T.
• Verify the effect of user experience with limited ports.
• Verify the performance of MAP-T.

2.2. Regulatory Considerations

The government requires server operators to detect the packet sender by source IP (and port) and therefore stateless address mapping technologies are preferred. This will dramatically reduce the volume of material required to be held for logging compliance.

In addition, the stateless translation technology is preferred, since IPv6 addresses in the IPv6 packets everywhere in the network contain both the IPv6 and IPv4 address information without the requirement of decapsulation.

2.3. Security Considerations

From operation point of view, single stack (IPv6-only) is easier for ensuring the security compared with the dual stack.

The stateless mechanism can help for the trace-back and identifying the source addresses (and port).

The translation mechanism can help for configuring the access list and rate-limiting control without decapsulation.

2.4. Operational Considerations

The MAP-T deployment should support the DHCPv6-PD and MAP-T parameter auto-configuration [I-D.ietf-softwire-map-dhcp], the PPPoE authentication and source address tracing back.

2.5. End-User Experience Considerations

The major issues are:

• Application test: The applications we have tested include web, email, Instant Message, ftp, telnet, SSH, video, Video Camera, P2P, online game, Voip, VPN and so on.
• Operating System test: The OS we have tested includes Win7/8, OSX, windows XP, iOS, Android, and Linux.
• Performance test: We have measured the parameters of concurrent session number, throughput performance.

3. Design and Deployment

3.1. Lab Test

+-----+  +-----+
|Host1+--+ CE1 +------+                              ------
+-----+  +-----+      |                          ////      \\\\
                    /-+--\      +----------+   //              \\
                  //      \\    |          |  |                  |
+-----+  +-----+ |  IPv6    |   | MAP-T BR |  |  IPv4 Internet   |
|Host2+--+ CE2 +-+ Network  +---|          +--+                  |
+-----+  +-----+  \\      //    |          |   \\              //
                    |---+/      +----------+     \\\\      ////
                    |   |                            ------
+-----+  +-----+    |   |
|Host3+--+ CE3 +----+   |
+-----+  +-----+        |                            ------
                        |                        ////      \\\\\
                        |                      |/                |
                        +----------------------+  IPv6 Internet  |
                                               |                 |
   CEs are connted to the                      |\               /
   IPv6 Network via BRAS                         \\\\      /////
   (PPPoE and DHCPv6)                                ------

    ----             -----
  //    \\         //     \\         ---------              --------
 /        \       /         \      //         \\         //  CPN
|         +-----+            +----+             \       /   --------
|         |     |   Metro    |BRAS|              |-----|--End System
| Backbone|Core |   Area     |/SR |   Access     |     |    --------
| Network |Route|  Network   +----+   Network    | CPE |    --------
|         |     |            |AAA |              |-----|--End System
|         +-----+            +----+             /    |  \   --------
 \        /       \          /      \\         //    |   \\
  \\    //         \\      //         --------       |     ---------
    ----            ----|--                          |
                        |                            |
 -----------------|     |      |----------------|    |    |---------|
                   \    |     /                  \   |   /          |
                    \---|--- /                    \--|--/           |
     IPv6/IPv4      | MAP-T  |       IPv6-only    |MAP-T| IPv6/IPv4 |
      Internet      |   BR   |        Network     |  CE |  Network  |
                   / ------- \                   / ----- \          |
                  /           \                 /         \         |
 ----------------|             |----------------|          |--------|