IPv6 Transition Mechanisms Supported by CPEs Used in the Region

The majority of the most popular Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) in Latin America and the Caribbean work with IPv6 and many support at least one transition mechanism.

These are some of the conclusions of the report commissioned by LACNIC on the IPv6 transition mechanisms supported by the region’s CPEs.

The research was led by Alejandro D´Egidio and assessed the deployment of CPEs with IPv6 support in LAC, as well as the most popular transition mechanisms supported by CPEs.

D’Egidio stressed that the transition to IPv6 should be improved by providing more training to technical staff and decision makers. “In many cases, they don’t begin working on IPv6 transition due to a lack of information, as they don’t know where to start or don’t realize that they may already have everything they need to do so,” he noted.

What were the main results of the research?

Research results depended largely on the collaboration of ISPs and CPE vendors. Only some of the ISPs in the region participated, most of which are already offering IPv6. Out of all the vendors we surveyed, ZTE, Sagemcom and Technicolor collaborated with the study.

Based on the information provided by both groups regarding the CPE models deployed in each access technology, we observed that the majority supports IPv6 and several support at least one transition mechanism.

This leads us to believe that a large number of CPEs already in use are currently ready to support IPv6 deployments and that it’s simply a matter of ISPs being able to adapt the rest of their infrastructure to start offering the v6 Internet protocol.

How many IPv6-ready CPE devices are deployed in the region? Which transition mechanisms do the most popular CPEs support?

A large number of CPE devices with IPv6 support is already deployed in the region. Most of these CPEs support DS-Lite as a transition mechanism.

Generally speaking, ISPs are providing IPv6 services using the dual-stack model, offering IPv4 (public or private CGN as the case may be) as well as IPv6.

This represents a great opportunity to work on a transition mechanism such as DS-Lite which is supported by most CPE devices with IPv6 support.

What are the leading transition mechanisms in the region and what is their market penetration?

DS-Lite is the leading transition mechanism under the region’s leading IPv4-as-a-Service model. A total of 79.55% of the CPE models reported by ISPs support DS-Lite.

On the other hand, according to the information provided by the vendors, this transition mechanism is available in 64.86% of the CPEs deployed in the region.

As already mentioned, the tendency among ISPs was that only those who are already offering IPv6 responded, while vendors provided information on the CPE they are using regardless of whether the ISP provides IPv6. In this sense, we decided it was best to base our conclusions on the information provided by the vendors, which is also very positive as it shows that almost 65% of the CPE devices they have deployed support DS-Lite.

What do you recommend doing to improve the transition to IPv6? What should be the most immediate actions?

First, technical personnel and decision makers should receive training on the importance of getting started with the transition.

In many cases, they don’t begin working on this transition due to a lack of information, as they don’t know where to start or don’t realize that they may already have everything they need to do so.

As for immediate actions, begin by taking advantage of the training courses LACNIC offers each year, join the community mailing lists and ask all the questions you need.

All of this will serve as the groundwork to begin testing and starting the transition process.

The more we become involved in this transition, the better and more transparent the service we will be able to offer our clients.