IPv6

USER DESCRIPTION

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Copyright

Ericsson AB 2011. All rights reserved. No part of this document may bereproduced in any form without the written permission of the copyright owner.

Disclaimer

The contents of this document are subject to revision without notice due tocontinued progress in methodology, design and manufacturing. Ericsson shallhave no liability for any error or damage of any kind resulting from the useof this document.

Trademark List

All trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.These are shown in the document Trademark Information.

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Contents

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Basic Characteristics 2

1.2 Benefits 2

2 Feature Operation 3

2.1 Network Requirements 3

2.2 IPv6 Feature Characteristics 3

2.3 Unsupported Features and Parameters 5

3 Parameters 7

3.1 Introduced Parameters 7

4 Network Impact 9

4.1 Capacity 9

5 Associated Features and Affected Functions 11

5.1 Prerequisite Features 11

5.2 Affected Features 11

5.3 Related Features 11

5.4 Affected System Functions 11

6 Performance 13

6.1 KPIs 13

6.2 Counters 13

6.3 Events 13

7 O&M Information 15

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IPv6

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Introduction

1 Introduction

This document describes the Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) feature and itsmain benefits and impacts in the LTE RAN.

The interface is single stack, that is, only one of IPv4 or IPv6 is possible toconfigure to carry S1/X2 user and control plane traffic. O&M (Mul interface) andsynchronization do not have IPv6 support. Domain Name System (DNS) issupported for AAAA address resolution. IP address configuration is manual.

Internet Protocol (IP) is a protocol on the network layer in the IP stack modelthat provides a connection-less datagram delivery service, described in RFC791 (IPv4) and RFC 2460 (IPv6). It is used for transporting datagrams fromone IP interface to another, independent of the content of the datagram. TheIPv6 feature enables the operator to expand the number of addresses in theRAN and avoid Network Address Translation (NAT). Also, Neighbor Discovery(ND) protocol is used instead of Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) on the linklayer. This reduces broadcast traffic in the system.

The following are the main functions:

RFC 2460 - Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification

Type 0 Routing headers parsed in accordance with RFC 5095

Processing of Hop-by-Hop header skipped by security reasons asproposed in IETF draft draft-krishnan-ipv6-hopbyhop-03

RFC 2464 - Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet Networks

RFC 2710 - Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) for IPv6

RFC 3596 - DNS Extensions to Support IP Version 6

RFC 4291 - IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture Text representation inaccordance with section 2.2, bullet 1 (hexadecimal) and 2 (hexadecimalwith zero compression)

RFC 4443 - Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the InternetProtocol Version 6 (IPv6) Specification

RFC 4861 - Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6) Section 6, Routerand Prefix discovery not supported Section 8, Redirect Function notsupported

RFC 4862 - IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration Only DuplicateAddress Detection (DAD) supported

Support for fragmentation and reassembly including handling for Out ofOrder fragments without capacity degradation

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IPv6

Support for ping6 and traceroute6

1.1 Basic Characteristics

This section describes the basic characteristics of the feature.

Feature identity:FAJ 221 0983 IPv6

Replaces: N/A, this is the first release with IPv6 support

Dependencies

This feature has no prerequisite features.

This feature affects no other features.

1.2 Benefits

This section describes the benefits of this feature.

The IPv6 feature is a future-proof addressing system that offers 128-bitaddresses, whereas IPv4 addresses only use 32 bits. Each eNodeB canhave its own unique address that never has to be translated to NAT. The newaddress space supports 2128 (about 3.41038) addresses.

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Feature Operation

2 Feature Operation

This section describes the IPv6 feature in more detail, including networkconfiguration requirements and operation flows.

Quality of Service (QoS) is supported in the same way as for IPv4 as describedin Transport Network Configuration.

Detailed configuration information and background for IPv6 regarding protocoloverview, Managed Object Model (MOM) structure, and addressing can befound in IP Transport.

2.1 Network Requirements

The following must be fulfilled at feature activation:

The transport network and the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) nodes haveto be IPv6 capable.

The transport network and the EPC nodes have to be dual stack in themigration case.

The Operations Support System (OSS) nodes have to support configurationof IPv6 Managed Objects (MOs).

The IPv6 feature license must be enabled.

DNS can answer with IPv4 and IPv6 addresses.

2.2 IPv6 Feature Characteristics

The following section lists some of the characteristics of the IPv6 feature.

2.2.1 IPv4 and IPv6 in the Same Network

On an LTE/Evolved Packet Core (EPC) system level, the core nodes MobilityManagement Entity (MME), Serving Gateway (SGW) and Packet Data NetworkGateway (PDN-GW) are IPv6 capable as shown in Figure 1. An E-UTRANNodeB (eNB) in IPv4 domain communicates with the same EPC nodes as theIPv6 eNBs. EPC nodes will respond on both IPv4 and IPv6 addressed packets.

Handover between RBSs with different IP versions is carried out using S1handover rather than direct X2 handover. Handover is made automaticallywithout any configuration and there is an automatic check for same IP version.If there is no match, handover will be made using S1.

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IPv6

The use of Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) and compatibility between IPv4and IPv6 VLANs is a question related to the first router in the network. RBSs isindependent on the VLAN level.

L0000419A

RBS

IPv6_Traffic

IPv4_OAM

MME

IPv6_MME

IPv4_MME

S-GW

IPv6_SGW

IPv4_SGW

OSS-RC

IPv4_OAMIPv6 host

Router

IPv4 host

RBS

IPv4_Traffic

IPv4_OAM

Figure 1 Mix of IPv4 and IPv6 in Same Network

2.2.2 SCTP in IPv6

The control plane traffic, Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP)protocol, uses IPv6 but the configuration of IPv6 parameters for SCTP isautomatically read from the IpAccessHostEt configuration data.

2.2.3 O&M in IPv6

Operations Support System - Radio and Core (OSS-RC) uses IPv4 and theO&M host in eNB will communicate using IPv4 addresses. The RBS canseparate IPv4 and IPv6 packets. When the traffic host in an eNB is convertedto IPv6, the same communications paths are valid. The IP address of the LocalCraft Terminal (LCT) port is IPv4 irrespective of the S1/X2 IP version.

2.2.4 Migration from IPv4 to IPv6

Detailed configuration information for migration from IPv4 to IPv6 is describedin IP Transport.

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Feature Operation

There is no limitation on how many RBSs can be migrated in one batch orhow to group the RBSs, for example by subnet or tracking area. If batch-wisemigration is planned, an automated confirmation may be implemented togetherwith the batch-migration application.

2.2.5 Ping in IPv6

IPv6 ping works like IPv4 ping, but no response is received if the wrong addressformat is used. Ping is an action in the IpAccessHostEt MO.

It is possible to check the link-local address on the eNB using the nbs ifcommand.

2.3 Unsupported Features and Parameters

The following features and parameters are not supported or applicable in IPv6:

Regarding the configuration of the IpAccesshostEt MO: Time to Live(TTL) is not applicable to IPv6 networks.

Echo request or response counters and several other counters are differentfrom IPv4. Details on individual counters can be found in Managed ObjectModel RBS.

Router Path Supervision (RPS) is not supported in IPv6.

Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) is not supported.

Access control list is not supported.

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IPv6

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Parameters

3 Parameters

This section describes the parameters introduced by the IPv6 feature.

3.1 Introduced Parameters

Table 1 and Table 2 describe the parameters introduced by the feature.

Table 1 Introduced Parameters in MO IPv6

Parameter Description

featureState Specifies whether the IPv6 licensed feature is ACTIVATED orDEACTIVATED

Ipv6Id Value component of the RDN(1)

licenseState Indicates whether a valid license key is installed for the feature

userLabel Label for free use

(1) Relative Distinguished Name

Table 2 Introduced Parameters in MO IPv6Interface

Parameter Description

availabilityStatus The parameter contains details about the operational state.

ethernetRef Reference to a GigaBitEthernet MO

interfaceName Indicates the automatically defined interface name that is used inthe IpRoutingTable MO, for showing which routes are validfor this instance of Ipv6Interface

Ipv6InterfaceId Value component of the RDN

mtu Maximum Transfer Unit. The MTU value is to be set as high aspossible. Path MTU discovery is supported and reduces the valueautomatically for each destination if needed.

operationalState Operational state

reservedBy Contains a list of MO instances that reserve this MO instance

userLabel Label for free use

vid VLAN identifier

vlan Specifies whether VLAN tagging is used on this interface

There are no specific recommendations on values of the IPv6 parameters.Examples of parameter values can be found in IP Transport. Besides the IPv6and Ipv6Interface MOs, the IpAccesshostEt and IpRoutingTableMOs also include parameters related to the IPv6 feature. More information canbe found in Managed Object Model RBS.

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IPv6

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Network Impact

4 Network Impact

This section describes how the IPv6 feature impacts the network functionsand capabilities.

A network plan with IPv6 addressing is needed to implement the IPv6 feature.

4.1 Capacity

This section provides information on the impact of the feature on networkcapacity.

Mbps through the IP interface of the eNB are the same for the IPv6 featureas for the IPv4 feature.

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IPv6

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Associated Features and Affected Functions

5 Associated Features and AffectedFunctions

This section describes how the IPv6 feature affects other features and functions.

5.1 Prerequisite Features

This feature has no prerequisite features.

5.2 Affected Features

This feature affects no other feature.

5.3 Related Features

This feature is not related to any other feature.

5.4 Affected System Functions

This feature affects no system functions.

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IPv6

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Performance

6 Performance

This section describes performance indicators, counters, and events associatedwith the IPv6 feature.

6.1 KPIs

This feature has no associated Key Performance Indicators (KPIs).

6.2 Counters

Table 3 lists the counters associated with the IPv6 feature.

Table 3 Counters and Events

Counter Description

pmIpIfStatsHCInOctets Total number of received IP octets, including those witherrors; RFC 4293

pmIpIfStatsHCInReceives Number of received IP datagrams, including those witherrors; RFC 4293

pmIpIfStatsHCOutOctets Total number of transmitted IP octets; RFC 4293

pmIpIfStatsHCOutTransmits Total number of transmitted IP datagrams; RFC 4293

pmIpIfStatsOutDiscards Number of IP datagrams that should be sent, but werediscarded due to resource problems (for example, lackof buffer space); RFC 4293

More information about counters can be found in Managed Object Model RBS.

6.3 Events

This feature has no associated events.

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IPv6

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O&M Information

7 O&M Information

This section provides Operation and Maintenance (O&M) information for theIPv6 feature.

IPv6 is a licensed feature. Activating the license is described in the sectionLicense Management in IP Transport. Licensing is described in LicenseManagement.

The Duplicate IP Address Fault alarm is generated if a duplicate IP addressis detected in the system. General fault management activities are describedin Fault Management.

Information on the status of the connection to the default router is obtainedusing the listRoutes action on the IpRoutingTable MO. The action willdisplay the static route (default gateway) and its status.

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toc1 Introduction1.1 Basic CharacteristicsDependencies1.2 Benefits2 Feature Operation2.1 Network Requirements2.2 IPv6 Feature Characteristics2.2.1 IPv4 and IPv6 in the Same Network2.2.2 SCTP in IPv62.2.3 O&M in IPv62.2.4 Migration from IPv4 to IPv62.2.5 Ping in IPv62.3 Unsupported Features and Parameters3 Parameters3.1 Introduced Parameters4 Network Impact4.1 Capacity5 Associated Features and Affected Functions5.1 Prerequisite Features5.2 Affected Features5.3 Related Features5.4 Affected System Functions6 Performance6.1 KPIs6.2 Counters6.3 Events7 O&M Information