Performance Evaluation of Routing Protocols RIPng, OSPFv3, and EIGRP in an
IPv6 Network
Siti Ummi Masruroh
Department of Informatics, FST
UIN Syarif Hidayatullah
Jakarta, Indonesia
ummi.masruroh@uinjkt.ac.id
Fadly Robby
Department of Informatics, FST
UIN Syarif Hidayatullah
Jakarta, Indonesia
fadly.robby11@mhs.uinjkt.ac.id
Nashrul Hakiem
Department of Informatics, FST
UIN Syarif Hidayatullah
Jakarta, Indonesia
hakiem@uinjkt.ac.id
2. B. Tunnelling
Tunnelling can be either manual or automatic and it replaces
either TCP or UDP protocol at layer four (transport layer). A
tunnel interface is implemented to allow data flow between
two specific nodes on a network. Depending on the entry and
exit point of tunnel; tunnelling structure may vary such that it
can be router to router, router to host, host to router or host to
host.
Figure 2.Tunnelling concept
When an IPv6 packet is sent over a tunnel, the former must
first be encapsulated into an IPv4 packet then upon arrival at
its destination it will be decapsulated.
1) 6to4: It uses an existing IPv4 network to transmit IPv6
data. The IPv4 address is normally integrated into the IPv6
address when packets are being sent through tunnel to
destination site. 6to4 uses a specific address format, starting
with prefix 2002 followed by the host IPv4 address and then
the subnet address. The encapsulated IPv4 address will then
be extracted at the IPv6 destination. 6to4 mechanism needs
relay routers for allowing communication to happen between
nodes. The relay will receive IPv6 packets coming from the
IPv4 host and will extract the IPv6 address from the IPv6
packets then forward the datagram to an IPv6 network. When
a datagram with prefix 2002 arrives at the relay from an IPv6
host, the datagram is encapsulated and transferred to the IPv4
network [3].
2) ISATAP: It is designed mainly for intra site scope; an
ISATAP host obtains a 64 bits prefix from the ISATAP
server. Then an ISTAP address is created with its own
interface identifier (::5efe/96), followed by the IPv4 address
[4]. For ISATAP tunnel to provide communication between
IPv4 and IPv6 routers, the ISATAP host will get a local
address and will detect the subsequent hop of the ISATAP
router. After implanting the IPv6 address into an IPv4 address,
then the packets will be transmitted by the tunnel. Arriving at
the destination the IPv4 header will be detached and the
packet is directed to the IPv6 server so that the server
transmits the packets to the ISATAP host. The host will then
remove the IPv4 header and extract the IPv6 packets [5].
3) 6RD: 6 Rapid Deployment is a tunnelling technology
derived from 6to4. They have modified 6to4 to create a better
mechanism by resolving all major architectural problems in
6to4. 6RD is easily deployed over existing native IPv4
network without any aggregation or subscriber management
networks. It is an automatic stateless point to multipoint
tunnelling mechanism. All addresses are automatically
discovered by the CPE (customer provided equipment) and
the border router addresses may be discovered either by using
different mechanism or configured statically. IPv6 packets
from the host side are encapsulated into IPv4 packets. The
prefix for 6RD is obtained from the ISP, each ISP uses its own
prefix; unlike 6to4 which has a fixed on (2002::/16).
Table 1-Summary of Tunnelling Mechanism [6]
Mechanism
Encapsulation
manner
Address
mapping for
encapsulation
Heterogeneous
routing
Issue
6to4 IP-in-IP
Stateless
mapping, IPv4
address
embedded in
IPv6
BR advertised
IPv6 for
Isolated IPv6
Islands to IPv6
Routing
scalability
issue: prefix
unable to
aggregate
ISATAP NBMA-over-
IPv4
Stateless
mapping with
link-local or
global prefix
Prefix
configuration
by ND
More
complicate
control plane
than layer-3
IP-IP
6RD
IP-in-IP
Stateless
automatic
mapping, IPv4
address
embedded in
IPv6
BR advertised
IPv6 routes for
users
None
III. METHODOLOGY
A test-bed was setup to evaluate the performance of the
chosen protocols. GNS3 was the most appropriate emulator
for the simulation as it uses real IOS images.
The test-bed (Figure 3) consists of 4 Cisco 7200 series routers
as IPv4 backbone and at the two extremities IPv6 host is
connected. Interconnection of routers was made using serial
cables. Routing protocol OSPFv3 was implemented on each
nodes of the network to allow communication.
All parameters for the testbed were kept constant while only
the transition techniques were varied. PC 1 and 2 were
implemented using loopback interfaces.
Figure 3. Topology testbed used for performance evaluation
of mechanism
The tunnel is configured on the border router, that is, router-
to-router tunnelling. Middle routers are IPv4 only but the
border routers support both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols. For the
evaluation of the Dual Stack mechanism, all the routers in the
network are configured with both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols.
2016 IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Innovative Business Practices for the Transformation of
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3. We have used four c7200 cisco routers having a RAM
capacity of 512MB each to implement 6to4, ISATAP, 6RD
and Dual Stack testbeds.
A. 6to4 Topology
The 6to4 topology (Figure 4) has a virtual tunnel over which
the IPv6 packets are sent. Interface Tunnel 0 was configured
on router R1 and R4 whereby an IPv6 address was attached on
each side of the tunnel. The interface addresses are shown in
Table 2.
Figure 4- 6to4 Network in GNS3
Table 2- IP address for 6to4 network
Router Interface IP address
R1
S1/0 172.168.0.1
Loopback 1 2001:1::1
Loopback 2 2001:3:0:0::3
Tunnel 0 2002:ACA8:1::1
R2 S1/0 172.168.0.2
S1/1 172.168.1.1
R3 S1/0 172.168.1.2
S1/1 172.168.2.1
R4
S1/0 172.168.2.2
Loopback 1 2001:4::4
Loopback 2 2001:2:0:0::2
Tunnel 0 2002:ACA8:202::1
B. ISATAP Topology
The ISATAP network (Figure 5) consists of two IPv6
networks, which communicate via an ISATAP tunnel
interface. The tunnel interface was configured on router R1
and R4. Loopback address 1, 2 and 3 represent a personal
computer with an IPv6 address. The IPv4 addresses and
loopbacks interfaces are configured on their corresponding
routers according to Table 3.
Figure 5-ISATAP network in GNS3
Table 3- IP address for ISATAP network 6RD
Router Interface IP Address
R1
S1/0 192.168.1.1
Loopback 0(tunnel1) 172.16.0.3
Loopback 1 2001:3:0:0::3
Loopback 2 2001:3:0:1::3
Loopback 3 2001:3:0:2::3
R2 S1/0 192.168.1.2
S1/1 192.168.2.1
R3 S1/0 192.168.2.2
S1/1 192.168.3.1
R4
S1/0 192.168.3.2
Loopback 0(tunnel1) 172.16.0.2
Loopback 1 2001:2:0:0::2
Loopback 2 2001:2:0:1::2
Loopback 3 2001:2:0:2::2
C.6RD Topology
The 6RD topology (Figure 6) has a virtual tunnel interface for
data to travel between the two IPv6 networks. The interface
tunnel 1 was configured on routers R1 and R4 to allow IPv6
packets to flow between the two IPv6 networks. The IPv4
addresses and loopbacks interfaces are configured on their
corresponding routers according to Table 4.
Figure 6-6RD network in GNS3
Table 4- IP address for 6RD network
Router Interface IP Address
R1
S3/0 172.168.123.3
Loopback 0(tunnel1) 172.16.0.3
Loopback 5 2003:AABB:3:1::1
Loopback 6 2003:AABB:3:2::1
R2 S3/0 172.16.123.2
S3/1 172.16.124.3
R3 S3/0 172.16.124.2
S3/1 172.16.125.3
R4
S3/0 172.16.125.2
Loopback 0(tunnel1) 172.16.0.2
Loopback 5 2003:AABB:2:1::1
Loopback 6 2003:AABB:2:2::1
D. Dual Stack Topology
Dual Stack routers are such that they possess both IPv4 and
IPv6 addresses. Hence, all four routers in Figure 7 have both
IPv6 and IPv4 addresses configured on their corresponding
serial ports.
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4. Loopback 0 represents the end user with a personal computer
using an IPv6 address and loopback 1 is the PC having the
IPv4 address. The IPv4, IPv6 addresses and loopbacks
interfaces are configured on their corresponding routers
according to Table 5.
Figure 7-Dual Stack in GNS3
Table 5-IP address for Dual Stack
Router Interface IP Address
R1
S1/0 172.16.12.1
FEC0::5:1
Loopback 0 FEC0::1:1
Loopback 1 7.7.7.7
R2 S1/0 172.16.12.2
FEC0::5:2
S1/1 172.16.11.1
FEC0::7:1
R3 S1/0 172.16.11.2
FEC0::7:2
S1/1 172.16.10.1
FEC0::8:1
R4
S1/0 172.16.10.2
Loopback 0 FEC0::2:1
Loopback 1 8.8.8.8
E. Performance Metrics
1) Round Trip time: It was obtained using the ping
command. Packets sizes transmitted varied from 1000 bytes to
15000 bytes during the simulation. Ping command also gives
packets loss result during transmission.
2) Throughput: It is used to determine the overall
performance for a network. A higher throughput means a
better performance for the network.
ℎ ℎ =
(1)
With the application of the above formula, throughput was
calculated in megabits per second (Mbps). MTU size of 1480
bytes was used for the simulation.
3) CPU Utilisation: The central processing unit (CPU)
usage level was monitored for each technique using the ‘Task
Manager’ feature in Microsoft® Windows 8. At any instant,
the normal CPU usage was 3%. During simulation, a rise in
the CPU usage level was to be noted.
IV. RESULTS
A. Round Trip Time Results
Figure 8 shows the comparison of RTT (latency) for the
different techniques simulated.
Figure 8-Comparison graph for Packet size V/S Time
Dual Stack recorded the lowest RTT followed by 6RD and
6to4 recorded the highest RTT result.
B. Throughput Results
Figure 9 shows the plots of packets size against throughput.
Figure 9- Comparison graph for Packet size V/S
Throughput
Dual Stack recorded the highest throughput result followed by
6RD and 6to4 recorded the worst throughput value.
C. CPU Utilisation Results
The CPU utilisation was fluctuating in a certain range; shown
below in the table 6.
50
90
130
170
210
250
290
330
370
410
450
490
530
1000 3000 5000 7000 9000 11000 13000 15000
Time/ms
Packet size/bytes
6to4
ISATAP
IPv4
IPv6
Dual Stack
6RD
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
120
130
140
150
160
170
180
1000 3000 5000 7000 9000 11000 13000 15000
Throughput/Mbps
Packet size/Bytes
IPv4
IPv6
6to4
ISATAP
6RD
Dual Stack
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5. Table 6-CPU utilisation
Network CPU utilisation range
IPv4 11-14%
IPv6 12-15%
Dual Stack 17-19%
6to4 11-12%
ISATAP 11-13%
6RD 10-12%
It should be noted that Dual Stack recorded the highest CPU
utilisation percentage compared to the rest because Dual Stack
has to maintain and manage two routing tables. The remaining
transition techniques have almost the same CPU usage with
only negligible differences
V. PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
A. IPv6 vs IPv4
The best performing technique is native IPv6 as it recorded
the overall lowest latency (RTT = 161.3 ms) and also overall
best throughput (throughput = 89.4 Mbps). Native IPv4
recorded the worst performance with the worst latency (RTT
= 248.8 ms) and worst throughput (throughput = 67.2 Mbps).
The anticipated results for this paper were that IPv6 produces
the best performance and IPv4 producing the worst
performance. This assertion has been proven and confirms the
work by author [7] and [8] that arrived to the conclusion that
IPv6 has the lowest RTT. The work of [5] also shows that
IPv6 recorded the highest throughput.
IPv6 is faster than IPv4 due to its simplified header structure,
IPv4 header contains 13 fields compared to only 8 fields are
present in the IPv6 header. IPv4 has a total difference header
size of 20 bytes. Fields such as identifier, flag, checksum and
offset no more exist in IPv6 header. Therefore packets
containing fewer fields will be processed faster QoS (quality
of service) has given a special boost in IPv6 protocol with the
new field known as “flow label”. This allows better
identification and handling of packets by routers that help in
better efficiency for data transmission [9]. IPv6 possesses
additional features such as no header checksum, flow priority,
route aggregation, neighbour discovery and no fragmentation,
and when we consider all these missing in IPv4, it clearly
shows why data transmission is slower in IPv4 [10].
IPv6 has a 16 bits payload length field that can contain up to a
64KB of data maximum. However if bigger packet payload
size is required, IPv6 protocol will provides a Jumbo payload
extension; Meaning fragmentation of data will not occur even
when the packet size is bigger that the payload size. Jumbo
payload extensions are frequently used when transmitting
enormous data payload [11].
IPv6 can handle packets fast and smooth due to dynamic path
Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) discovery. According to
the source router minimum MTU for the route link, the frames
will be sized so as no fragmentation is performed. This feature
eliminates the excessive CPU exhaustion as no fragmentations
and assembly process is done by routers. As the header
structure is considerably different from IPv4, the way an IPv6
packet is processed by layer 3 and above is also different.
B. Transition Techniques
In addition to the investigation of native IPv4 and IPv6, four
other transition mechanisms were tested and it is worth noting
that Dual Stack generated the second best result (RTT = 175.2
ms and throughput = 82.2 Mbps) after native IPv6. The
configuration and the protocol for Dual Stack is mostly the
same as for IPv6. In Dual Stack, on each individual router,
both IPv6 and IPv4 addresses have to be configured. Each and
every Duals Stack routers has the native IPv6 and IPv4
protocol configured to them. So for example when
transmitting IPv6 packers using Dual Stack, the router will use
the native IPv6 setup protocol, which is why the performance
of native IPv6 and Dual Stack is practically the same. The
problem with dual stack is that it makes an extensive use of
CPU power compared to other mechanism as demonstrate in
table 6. This excessive use for CPU utilization is due because
routers have to maintain and manage two routing tables in
parallel, one for IPv4 and the other for IPv6.
The third best performer was 6RD (RTT = 196.8 ms and
throughout = 84.4 Mbps). 6RD protocol was derived from
6to4 mechanism in order to compensate the lack in 6to4. The
observed performance also indicate that 6RD was better than
6to4 (RTT = 230.9 ms and throughout = 70.1 Mbps). In 6to4
to send an IPv6 packet, the latter should first be encapsulated
into an IPv4 packet then it is transmitted through the tunnel
created. For 6RD, the same idea as 6to4 prevails, however,
instead of using prefix 2002::/16 for addressing, 6RD uses the
native IPv6 prefix from the service provider own address
block and the size of the prefix obtained is not fixed. This task
permits the 6RD operational domain to be inside the service
provider network. So according to the viewpoint of the
customer sites and the IPv6 internet connected to a 6RD
enable service provider network, the IPv6 service provided is
equivalent to native IPv6 [12].
6to4 operates by relaying traffic between native IPv6 and IPv4
using relay servers which advertise common IPv4 and IPv6
prefixes to networks they are arranged to provide relay
services for, but there is no guarantee that all native IPv6 hosts
have a working route toward such a relay. Due to this, 6to4
host is not guaranteed to be accessible by all native IPv6
hosts. The 6to4 relay is managed by third party who is not
obliged to maintain a good quality of service when traffic
increases. That why 6RD uses ISP prefixes instead of the
fixed 2002::/16 uniform for 6to4. Provider normally
guarantees that its IPv6 host is accessible from all native IPv6
hosts that reach their IPv6 network as the relay is fully govern
by the ISP’s. As 6RD relay can only be used by a restricted set
of host that are all under the control the same managerial unit,
it diminishes the risk for traffic attack which is possible in
6to4 [13].
2016 IEEE International Conference on Emerging Technologies and Innovative Business Practices for the Transformation of
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6. Another notable difference is that in 6to4 all 32 bits of the
IPv4 destination is carried in the IPv6 payload header but in
6RD the destination IPv4 address is obtained from a
combination of bits in the payload header and information on
the router [12]. Furthermore the IPv4 address is not a fixed
location in the IPv6 header as it is in 6to4.
Another noticeable observation was that for the transmission
of very small packet size ranging from 100 bytes to
approximately 1500 bytes 6RD recorded a better RTT value
than native IPv6, meaning transmission of small packets is
more efficient when 6RD is deployed. But in real life such
small packet size are rarely used.
ISATAP performance (RTT = 221.95 ms and throughout =
71.96 Mbps) lies between 6to4 and 6RD; i.e., it performs
better than 6to4 but not as good as 6RD. The work of previous
author [14] analysis also shows that ISATAP had a better
performance than 6to4.
6RD, 6to4 and ISATAP mechanism which are IPv6-in-IPv4
most used automatic tunnelling transition techniques shows a
remarkably lower performance compared to native Ipv6
because of the size of the datagram that is being transmitted
[15]. There is an additional 20 bytes being used in the
datagram which causes an overhead of 20 bytes per packets
when transmitting the data. This additional 20 bytes of data
present in payload is the required information for
encapsulation and decapsulation of packets to occur.
VI. CONCLUSION
The main reason to shift to IPv6 is due to the lack of IPv4
addresses. In the very near future, all entities that are
concerned with Internet directly or indirectly will have to deal
with transition to IPv6. This paper compares the performances
of the most used transition techniques. We have simulated
automatic tunnel techniques (6to4, ISATAP, 6RD) because it
is more effective than manual tunnelling.
Using GNS3 as our emulator, we simulated the different
mechanisms based on the testbed that was initially designed.
After analysing all the generated results, we conclude that
Dual Stack has the best performance. But the issue with the
latter is that it consumes IPv4 addresses when it is being
deployed and that the world is running out of IPv4 addresses.
Another issue is that Dual Stack routers consume lots of
resources such as memory and processing power because Dual
Stack routers need to handle and manage two routing tables in
parallel for the techniques to work properly.
6RD provides the second best results. 6RD is an automatic
tunnelling transition technique and does not have major
problems associated that may inhibit its deployment. Until the
entire Internet shifts to native IPv6, 6RD seems to be the most
appropriate technique for enabling the two protocols to exist
and communicate side by side.
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