How can you best migrate your network to IPv6? What is the best transition mechanism to use of the many available? Should you make your network dual-stack? Use tunneling? Go IPv6-only with gateways on the edge?
I’ve been asked this question lately by a number of people and unfortunately the answer to what is “best” is really…
“It depends.“
There are a lot of variables relating to the type of network you have – the architecture, the equipment, the applications, etc.
Thankfully, there are a good number of documents out there that can help with thinking about what mechanism will work best for your. One of those is RFC 6180, “Guidelines for Using IPv6 Transition Mechanisms during IPv6 Deployment“, available at:
It is an informational RFC (i.e. not a “standard” but a document intended to be helpful) that outlines four different deployment scenarios and how you might use them. While it was published in early 2011 and a LOT has happened with IPv6 in the two years since, the document is still a good reference document and one I would encourage you to review.
Most importantly, just start getting IPv6 deployed!