nanog mailing list archives

Re: Another LTE network turns up as IPv4-only


From: Tore Anderson <tore.anderson () redpill-linpro com>
Date: Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:38:14 +0200

* Mikael Abrahamsson

In my experience, long-lived sessions are unreliable when you're on the
move anyway. Go into an elevator? Sessions drop. Subway heads into a
tunnel? Sessions drop.

I guess you and me have radically different experience of mobile phone
networks and how well they work.

Maybe. Welcome to Oslo. :-)

I think this is a really poor excuse for not supporting IPv6 and
IPv4v6 in any case. Unless I'm gravely misinformed on how 3GPP mobile
networks work, there is absolutely no reason why you cannot on LTE
simultaneously support IPv4, IPv6, and IPv4v6. That the LTE network
additionally supports IPv6/IPv4v6 does not *in any way* prevent you
from sticking to IPv4 in all cases and enjoying the exact same session
mobility between 2G/3G/4G as you can if the LTE network only supports
IPv4.

IPv4v6 on LTE is a no-brainer,

...and that is *precisely* why it's so disappointing to see Telenor not
supporting it from day one.

Besides, the LTE network is being touted as a potential replacement
for wired broadband. In that use case, the end user isn't likely to be
mobile at all - presumably he'll have some CPE sitting in his window
sill within LTE coverage 100% of the time. So no session mobility
issues, and all the potential to be provisioned with IPv6 access. But no.

Sure. But now you will probably have a 4G router with NAT44, with no
IPv6 support at all. I'd gladly take hints of devices with proper IPv4v6
support in this area.

I don't know of any 4G routers at all, but what I do know is that any 4G
router with NAT44 and no IPv6 support would work just fine in an LTE
network that also supported IPv6/IPv4v6.

What I also do know is that if you do manage to get your hands on a
dual-stack capable router (or any other mobile device really), its IPv6
capabilities will *not* work on an LTE network with no IPv6/IPv4v6
bearer support.

The important reason to upgrade is to get higher speeds, not to get
access to new L3 tech.

Missed opportunity if you ask me. We could have had both.

Yes we could, and we will. Just because someone isn't doing it *now*
doesn't mean it won't be done in the not so distant future.

We could have had it available on LTE *now* and in a not so distant
future on 2G/3G. Doing it incrementally like that would not break any
current IPv4-only stuff, so I don't understand how it's problematic.

-- 
Tore Anderson
Redpill Linpro AS - http://www.redpill-linpro.com


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