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 IPv6
and Infranets
Adapted from a Juniper Networks White Paper
Both service providers and enterprises understand the importance of transforming
their approach to networking from opportunistic to strategic and forward-looking.
The essential element in this shift is a single, secure, evolutionary
IP infrastructure over which all services and applications can be delivered
– an approach that Juniper Networks and other technology leaders
have defined as “Infranets.”
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) plays a key role in this transformation.
Increasing address size from 32 bits to 128 bits creates a virtually infinite
universe of possible IPv6 addresses and ensures that Infranets can be
expanded both logically and geographically. IPv4's current allocation,
in contrast, makes it difficult for service providers and large companies,
particularly international ones, to obtain efficient address blocks. That
has led to a reliance on network address translation (NAT), which often
adds complexity and hampers the performance of advanced services such
as voice over IP (VoIP).
IPv6 also makes it possible to assign a unique address to virtually any
device—mobile phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) being
two recent examples. Thus, IPv6 enables new and advanced applications
to be deployed leveraging the same flexible IP connectivity.
In addition, IPv6 provides a range of operational benefits including:
hierarchical addressing for simplifying privacy; stateless auto-configuration
for dynamic host address assignment; simplified routing hierarchy for
better route summarization and less data fragmentation; more flexible
protocol extensions; and, inherent support of IPSec.
While the long term benefits of IPv6 are widely understood, deployment
demands that any IPv6 implementation meet several immediate criteria.
Juniper Networks Infranet-ready IPv6
Juniper Networks delivers the industry’s first Infranet-ready IPv6
implementation by addressing the greatest IPv6 deployment challenges for
service providers and carriers today:
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A comprehensive IPv6 solution that provides end-to-end support for
any IPv6 application scenario from enterprise premises to service
provider core
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Production-quality hardware and software that delivers a rich set
of features, a highly available platform, uncompromising performance,
and a highly flexible set of transition and operations mechanisms
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Security for both control and data plane functions
Juniper is recognized by IPv6 technology leaders such as the following:
IPv6 from Premises to Core
IPv6 has no natural boundaries, and its deployment to date has underscored
that fact. IPv6 has been deployed in a variety of large and small networks,
including service provider, enterprise, research, and government networks.
IPv6 also knows no geographical boundaries, and has been deployed in every
region of the world. As a result, any IPv6 solution must account for this
incredible range of deployment scenarios.
Juniper Networks networking and security product portfolios offer a comprehensive
IPv6 solution for any IPv6 deployment. Juniper Networks M-series and T-series
products ensure reliability and performance through a common approach
to hardware and software architecture. IPv6 is supported on all M- and
T-series interfaces and offers the same configuration and operational
simplicity that network operators and businesses have come to expect from
all Juniper Networks products. Juniper Networks NetScreen security portfolio
extends Infranet-ready IPv6 from the network core to customer premises
with a fully-featured IPv6 protocol stack, a rich set of networking, security
and auto configuration features, and a highly flexible set of transition
tools. Juniper Networks IPv6 portfolio has also demonstrated extensive
interoperability between its own platforms and with other vendor products
– delivering the first assured IPv6 solutions from premises to core.
Production-Quality IPv6
IPv6 today has moved beyond the lab. As a result, an Infranet-ready IPv6
solution must deliver production-quality levels of feature richness and
availability. In addition, an Infranet-ready solution must also provide
all necessary tools for the seamless integration and coexistence of IPv6
alongside existing environments.
Successful deployments around the world and precise benchmark testing
have demonstrated Juniper Networks’ excellence in IPv6 and have validated
Juniper Networks’ ability to deliver operational simplicity and flexibility
as well as performance in production environments.
Juniper Networks Solution Brief:
Simplified IPv6 Deployments
Juniper Networks offers a wide range of operational tools to ease IPv6
deployment for a broad set of applications that enable IPv6 to be configured
and maintained rapidly and efficiently, and minimize IPv6 time to deployment.
Juniper Networks complements these operational tools with a complete portfolio
of routing protocols that enable IPv6 to be deployed in a wide range of
network environments, provide flexibility in choosing an internal routing
scheme, and guarantee that IPv6 is globally deployable. At the same time,
Juniper Networks’ robust BGP (Border Gateway Protocol) implementation
for IPv6 ensures that Infranet advantages can be realized across even
the largest networks.
Dual Stack
As IPv4 and IPv6 will undoubtedly co-exist in networks for a very long
time, the dual-stack method is required to run both IPv4 and IPv6 protocol
stacks in parallel. IPv4 applications communicate with IPv4 hosts; IPv6
applications, with IPv6 hosts. Juniper Networks offers high-performance
dual stack operation from enterprise premises to service provider core.
Translation & Tunneling
Integration and transition tools and mechanisms play a key role in simplifying
operations and minimizing costs when introducing IPv6. Juniper Networks’
IPv6 portfolio provides extensive transition mechanisms, such as NAT/NAPT
and IPv6 over MPLS (MultiProtocol Label Switching) that ease the burden
of converting from IPv4 to IPv6. Security products, for example, offer
“4 to 6” and “6 to 4” tunneling, as well as “4
to 6” and “6 to 4” translation. This dynamic translation
capability allows agencies and network service providers to integrate
IPv6 without replacing their existing IPv4 network infrastructure. For
sites that regularly exchange traffic, configured tunnels can be used
to connect IPv6 hosts or networks over an existing IPv4 infrastructure.
With this approach IPv6 packets are encapsulated in IPv4 headers. The
encapsulating router uses the configured tunnel endpoint as the destination
address for the IPv4 tunnel packet.
MPLS-based Tunneling
The Juniper Networks infrastructure portfolio offers a range of MPLS-based
options for tunneling IPv6 traffic. Using MPLS Circuit Cross-connect,
IPv6 hosts can communicate over an IPv4 network via a point-to-point configured
tunnel. IPv6 packets are encapsulated in MPLS headers. Only the ingress
router with the tunnel address need be configured. MPLS Layer 2 VPNs (virtual
private networks) also simplify MPLS transport by employing BGP for VPN
signaling, thus eliminating the need to manually map every circuit to
a label-switched path.
IPv6 over MPLS also provides a standards-based, efficient way to transport
IPv6 traffic over an existing IPv4/MPLS network. This method provides
a cost-effective way for service providers to layer IPv6 services over
an IPv4/MPLS network, by enabling IPv6 only on the provider edge (PE)
routers. IPv6 over MPLS helps service providers optimize their assets
by minimizing the number of IPv6-enabled devices required in the infrastructure;
it also reduces the operational cost and complexity by limiting the number
of devices that must be touched.
Secure IPv6
The Juniper Networks’ IPv6 solution addresses one of the greatest
challenges to IPv6 deployment: security. Delivering the industry’s
first integrated IPv6-enabled stateful firewall and IPSec VPN implementation,
Juniper Networks extends its IPv6 security leadership. Juniper Networks’
security product portfolio ensures that enterprises can create a trusted
IPv6 environment where both their network infrastructure and their data
can be secured from threats. Service providers can take advantage of Juniper
Networks’ infrastructure product portfolio to protect both the control
plane of their network and their customers’ data through robust IPv6
filtering and rate limiting without compromising performance.
Conclusion
IPv6 will play a critical role in the deployment of Infranets. Juniper
Networks delivers significant advantages in IPv6 performance and richness—enabling
network operators and businesses around the world to deploy secure, production-quality
IPv6 for any application from premises to core. As a recognized leader
in IPv6, Juniper Networks is helping customers transform their networks
by delivering Infranet-ready IPv6.
For a full, illustrated version of this document visit: http://www.juniper.net/solutions/literature/solutionbriefs/351045.pdf
About Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks is the leader in enabling secure and assured communications
over a single IP network. The company's purpose-built, high performance
IP platforms enable customers to support many different services and applications
at scale. Service providers, enterprises, governments and research and
education institutions worldwide rely on Juniper Networks to deliver products
for building networks that are tailored to the specific needs of their
users, services and applications. Juniper Networks' portfolio of proven
networking and security solutions supports the complex scale, security
and performance requirements of the world's most demanding networks. Additional
information can be found at www.juniper.net.
Juniper Networks is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
and in other countries as a trademark of Juniper Networks, Inc. All other
trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, or registered service
marks are the property of their respective owners.
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