The Applicability and Security Analysis of IPv6 Tunnel Transition Mechanisms

摘要

Due to the exhaustion of IPv4 address resources, the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is inevitable and fairly urgent. Numerous transition mechanisms have been proposed, especially the tunnel scheme which is the focus of research efforts in IETF and academia recently. However, because of the diverse characteristics and transition requirements of practical networks and the lack of applicability analysis, the selection and deployment of transition mechanisms are facing with grand challenges. Targeting at those challenges, this paper investigates the basic issues and key elements of IPv6 tunnel transition mechanisms, and presents its first applicability index system. In particular, we analyze the applicability of existing proposed tunnel techniques based on the presented index system, which has significant guidance in the practical deployment of IPv6 transition. Moreover, as the key factors in realistic working environment, the analysis for the security issues of tunnel transition scheme, which was seldom taken into account before, is provided in this study.