The global growth of internet-connected devices will exceed the available IPv4 addresses by 2011, necessitating a transition to IPv6. IPv6 provides a vastly larger address space to accommodate future growth. Enterprises must prepare for this transition by evaluating their infrastructure for IPv6 compatibility, establishing a governance team, researching transition technologies, testing solutions, and communicating with partners. AT&T has invested heavily to make its network, products, and services IPv6-ready and provides consulting services to help enterprises with their transition plans.

1. IPv6: Complete These
5 Steps to Prepare
Executive Summary
Global growth of the Internet has been driven by the increased use of computing and communication
technology. Mobile equipment, home appliances and other consumer devices will be online and
interconnected. In a new “machine to machine” Internet, invisible computing devices will far
outnumber current IT devices. Each of these devices needs an IP address.
The current Internet Protocol (IP) addressing system that Internet devices use – called IPv4 – will
run out of addresses in 2011. A new protocol, IPv6, has been introduced to provide a virtually
limitless address space. It will help enable capabilities such as push applications, peer-to-peer based
applications and cloud computing over the Internet.
The arrival of IPv6 does introduce a new problem for Internet users – IPv4 is not compatible with
IPv6, and the transition from the earlier standard to the standard of the future presents significant
challenges. In this paper we will discuss these challenges, together with the steps AT&T is taking to
help enable a smooth transition for our customers. We will also provide guidelines to help enterprises
prepare for IPv6 and take advantage of the strategic opportunities IPv6 will bring.

2. IPv6: Complete These 5 Steps to Prepare _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 2
Understanding IPv4 and IPv6 Now is the Time
IPv4 was first developed in the early 1980s and is still the predominant For enterprises the transition to IPv6 will not happen overnight. The
standard for addressing the “packets” of digital information that flow process takes thorough planning, preparation and execution. The
over the Internet. But IPv4 offers a limited number of possible unique number of “edges” and the depth of the network that mustbe IPv6 –
addresses. After 30 years of Internet growth never anticipated back in enabled will impact the complexity of the transition. Even a simple
1980, the supply of addresses is almost gone. Less than 6% of IPv4 transition may take 6 months to implement.
global addresses remain for allocation.
Every networked device, every software application and every
The IPv6 standard, defined in December 1998 by the Internet Engineering interface with customers, suppliers and other key stakeholders must
Task Force (IETF), provides a larger address space than the IPv4 protocol. be examined and tested to verify that it is compatible with IPv6. This
IPv6 makes 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 process has the potential to be as complex as it is important.
addresses available, compared to just over 4,000,000,000 with IPv4.
The impact of IPv6 will vary from one organization to another, and
The Internet won’t suddenly shut down when IPv4 addresses run there will be important differences among functions and operations
out, but the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is taking on new urgency. even within the same enterprise. The urgency with which the
Though some IPv4 addresses can be recycled and other workarounds organization must move will be driven by the nature of the business.
are available, more and more new Internet users will be using IPv6 For instance, a business that relies on the Internet for marketing and
addresses. Unless preparations are made and the right technology is sales communication with customers in Asia should place the highest
in place, organizations using only IPv4 systems will find many potential priority on adopting IPv6.
customers are out of reach.
Now is the time for every enterprise to understand how they, their
This problem will likely need to be addressed faster by enterprises customers, suppliers and other business partners will be affected by
working with Asian, European and Middle Eastern regions. Because the move from IPv4 to IPv6 – and start planning to transition.
these regions received a relatively smaller historical allocation of IPv4
addresses, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa will be forerunners Living in a Dual-Protocol World
in using IPv6 addresses. Unless companies enable IPv6, they will find it The roughly four billion IPv4 addresses already issued will not vanish
increasingly difficult to reach these large and growing bases of consumers. over night. IPv4 will continue to coexist with IPv6 for years, though
virtually all new devices and all Internet growth will employ IPv6. The
IETF has defined several methods for transition and co-existence:
Why Be Concerned About IPv6? Tranistion Mechanisms
Dual-stack allows IPv4 and IPv6 to co-exist in the same devices and
IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) is expected to run networks. Another approach, called Tunneling, allows IPv6 packets to
out of IPv4 addresses for the U.S. around 2011 be transmitted over an IPv4 infrastructure, or vice versa. Translation, a
• IPv6 address will be allocated to new customers third approach and a work in progress, would enable IPv6-only devices
upon exhaustion to communicate with IPv4-only devices.
• IPv4 addresses do not readily communicate with Is NAT a Solution?
IPv6 addresses Not all carriers will be able to provide network address translation
(NAT). Even if NAT is implemented by a provider, significant business
• IP-enabled mobile devices may not locate IPv4 sites
impacting issues will result. Carrier-provided translation may fix site
• IPv4/IPv6 eCommerce sites may not be able to receive “reachability,” but that will introduce new problems. Once a carrier
orders from IPv6/IPv4 users deploys NAT to address IPv4/Ipv6 communication issues, all IP
addresses may appear as if they are coming from the same source…
Increasing IPv6 adoption in Asia and EMEA the carrier. This will have a significant impact on many areas of an
• Communication with global customers will be difficult w/o enterprise, particularly marketing and IT security.
IPv6 presence Enterprises will lose intelligence about individuals visiting their website.
• A potential loss of global business opportunity exists This will limit the personalization of content. For example: a retail site
without IPv6 preparation may push related items to a customer based upon previous clicks. This
customization will not longer be available, as the user will not be able
Provider “fixes” may make website visitors appear to be from to be identified by the IP address.
the same IP address
Many enterprises also employ access control lists to block IP addresses
• Customized marketing will become more difficult known for sending SPAM. This capability will also be impacted through
• Enterprises may experience increased SPAM activity a NAT implementation.
IPv6 is a foreign concept to many customers
• Most enterprises do not understand the impact/scope of
the transition

3. IPv6: Complete These 5 Steps to Prepare _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 3
IPv6 Preparation: Follow These Steps Is AT&T Prepared?
Enterprises should closely examine operations, products and AT&T has spent several years preparing for IPv6. As a leading
infrastructure, as well as methods for communicating with customers global communications provider, we have a responsibility to support
and suppliers, to understand the complexity of the transition. Now is our customers in the transition to IPv6. This is an effort of broad
the time to ensure that the network edge is ready for IPv6 – with dual scope and great complexity: anything that touches digital data or is
stack, tunneling or full conversion to IPv6. Enterprises should also be IP-related, anywhere across the global enterprise, must be reviewed,
communicating with suppliers and content providers to verify their analyzed and, if necessary, adapted to be IPv6-ready. Our IPv6
ability to deal with the change and keep networking data moving. strategy includes two major components:
In this section we outline a step-by-step process for conducting an • Preparing our network, products and services to be IPv6 ready
IPv6 readiness review.
• Supporting and educating our customers to start planning for IPv6
Step 1: Establish A Governance Team That Will Oversee The Transition Since most products and services are supported by the network, the
This team will establish transition timelines, sequencing and first course of action used by AT&T was to make sure the Common
interdependencies. The program and timelines should be reviewed Backbone could accommodate IPv4 and IPv6 addresses. This
at frequent intervals to assess the execution. preparation began years ago. Our next step is to provide our transport
offerings the capability to communicate both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses,
Step 2: Quantify Infrastructure Readiness And Understand and then extend IPv6 support to our managed services and application
Transition Impacts services offers.
With this evaluation, all network components and applications should
be examined for IPv6 readiness. After the inventory is completed, a Adapting Products and Infrastructure
cost assessment should be done to understand the financial impact of AT&T is investing millions to prepare our network, products and
the transition. services for IPv6. Our transition effort touches many organizations
across the corporation: product planning and management, information
Step 3: Evaluate Transition Technologies technology, content services, supply chain management and more. In
As mentioned earlier, enterprises can choose from multiple approaches order to prepare for IPv6, AT&T has established a separate corporate
to prepare the network for IPv6. Once the network assessment is program office. This corporate program office is managing more than
completed, transition technologies, such as tunneling and translation 80 IPv6 projects. The work is organized into two focus areas.
mechanisms, need to be researched to understand which solution best
fits business needs. Feasible interconnectivity options and architectures • Product Readiness
that can support IPv6 must be determined. And, finally, a thorough
transition strategy and timeline, which should start with Internet facing Thirty five percent of AT&T products are Internet Protocol-related.
services, then core, then edge, would be established. Every product or service, whether it is a longtime part of the AT&T
portfolio or a product still in development, must have a roadmap
Step 4: Engineer the Solution for transition to IPv6. AT&T has developed a detailed plan to enable
In this phase, detailed design and equipment configurations, transition IPv6 across its portfolio of business services in phases over the
sequencing and transition engineering tasks should be developed. IP next several years. Core IP network transport services have been
addressing, procurement and allocation should be defined, as well as prioritized into the earliest phases.
Domain Name System (DNS) and Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol In the first stage, AT&T is preparing the foundational enterprise IP
(DHCP). “Computers that are connected to IP networks must be transport services, such as AT&T Managed Internet Service (MIS)
configured before they can communicate with other computers on and AT&T Virtual Private Network Service (AVPN) to be IPv6 ready
the network. DHCP allows a computer to be configured automatically, in 2010 and early 2011. We will then follow on with our managed
eliminating the need for intervention by a network administrator. It services, application services, and consumer services.
also provides a central database for keeping track of computers that
have been connected to the network. This prevents two computers • Infrastructure Readiness
from accidentally being configured with the same IP address.”1 “There
are two versions of DHCP, one for IPv4 and one for IPv6. While both Because so many AT&T offerings are network-based services, it
versions bear the same name and perform much the same purpose, is crucial to validate that the network and other infrastructure
the details of the protocol for IPv4 and IPv6 are sufficiently different components are prepared for IPv6. The Infrastructure Readiness
that they can be considered separate protocols.”2 group is helping to ensure:
– The network backbone is ready for IPv6
Step 5: Conduct Testing and Piloting
Before IPv6 is rolled out, enterprises may elect to pilot the solution – IP systems and infrastructure are ready to support products,
that was developed. Test labs can be created to verify that established services and customers
plans will work. Enterprises should procure and set up an IPv6 sandbox
to test infrastructure design and application integration. Pilot sites – Ordering, provisioning, billing and maintenance are enabled for
can be deployed to validate IPv6 integration. Once the solution is the transition
successfully tested, the IPv6 transition plan can be executed. – Vendors offering products and services that support AT&T
products and services are prepared for IPv6…. vendor preparation
is a key part of the AT&T readiness program
– IT applications, HR systems and other common infrastructure
elements – those not directly tied to a product – are ready for IPv6

4. IPv6: Complete These 5 Steps to Prepare _____________________________________________________________________________________________________ 4
Network evolution technologies, like LTE, will contemplate IPv6 in strategy, identifying requirements, analyzing architecture, establishing
their deployment activities. LTE, or Long-Term Evolution, is the next a roadmap, engineering and designing a solution, piloting and testing
generation of the mobile broadband technology platform that powers the solution, and helping with the final implementation. Please
the AT&T 3G mobile network today. contact your account representative today to begin your tranisiton.
Also visit IPv6: Live Chat Transcripts and http://www.business.att.com/
AT&T Consulting Services enterprise/online_campaign/ipv6/ for more information on IPv6.
AT&T is utilizing its own learning and experience with IPv6 to help
enterprises. The AT&T Consulting practice is helping enterprises Notes
develop IPv6 business plans that extend beyond the scope of simply 1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_Host_Configuration_Protocol
enabling dual stack addressing on their VPN and Internet ports. The
IPv6 Consulting group from AT&T can help with every step required to 2. Ralph Droms; Ted Lemon (2003). The DHCP Handbook. SAMS
make a smooth transition to the new protocol, including: developing a Publishing. p. 436. ISBN 0-672-32327-3.
For more information contact an AT&T Representative or visit www.att.com/business.
12/06/10 AB-2026
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