master-thesis/doc/Introduction.tex

%** Introduction.tex: Contains an introduction to
%                     the topic and motivates the work.
%                     State what the reader can find where.

%** Problem.tex: Documentation in own words of the problem to
%                be addressed in this document:
%                What is the challenge, why is it useful what you
%                plan to do.


%% In \ref{introduction} we start with our introduction to the problem that we
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\chapter{\label{introduction}Introduction}
In this chapter we give an introduction about the topic of the master
thesis, the motivation and problemes that we address. We explain the
current state of IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 adoption and describe how
it motivates our work to support ease transition to IPv6 networks.

% ----------------------------------------------------------------------
\section{\label{introduction:ipv4ipv6}IPv4 exhaustion and IPv6 adoption}
The Internet has almost completely run out of public IPv4 space. The
5 Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) report IPv4 exhaustion world wide
(\cite{ripe_exhaustion},
\cite{apnic_exhaustion},
\cite{lacnic:_ipv4_deplet_phases},
\cite{afrinic:_afrin_ipv4_exhaus},
\cite{arin:_ipv4_addres_option}) and LACNIC project complete
exhaustion for 2020 (see figure \ref{fig:lacnicexhaust}).

\begin{figure}[h]
  \includegraphics[scale=0.7]{lacnicdepletion}
  \centering
  \caption{LACNIC Exhaustion projection,
    ~\cite{lacnic:_ipv4_deplet_phases}}
  \label{fig:lacnicexhaust}
\end{figure}

On the other hand IPv6 adoption grows significantly, with at least
three countries (India, US, Belgium) surpassing 50\%
adoption~\cite{akamai:_ipv6_adopt_visual},
\cite{vyncke:_ipv6_deploy_aggreg_status},
\cite{cisco:_ipv6}. Traffic from Google users reaches almost 30\% as
of 2019-08-08~\cite{google:_ipv6_googl}, see figure \ref{fig:googlev6}.
\begin{figure}[h]
  \includegraphics[scale=0.2]{googlev6}
  \centering
  \caption{Google IPv6 Statistics,
    ~\cite{google:_ipv6_googl}}
  \label{fig:googlev6}
\end{figure}
We conclude that IPv6 is a technology strongly gaining importance with
the IPv4 depletion that is estimated to be world wide happening in the
next years. Thus more devices will be using IPv6, while communication
to legacy IPv4 devices still needs to be provided.

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\section{\label{introduction:motivation}Motivation}
IPv6 nodes and IPv4 nodes cannot directly connect to each other,
because the protocols are incompatible to each other.
To allow communication between different protocol nodes,
several transition mechanism have been
proposed (\cite{wikipedia:_ipv6}, \cite{rfc4213}).

However installation and configuration of the transition mechanism
usually require in depth knowledge about both protocols and require
additional hardware to be added in the network.

In this thesis we show an in-network transition method based on
NAT64~\cite{rfc6146}. Compared to traditional NAT64 methods which require an
extra device in the network, our proposed method is transparent to the
user. This way neither the operator nor the end user has to configure
extra devices. Figures \ref{fig:v6v4standard} shows the standard NAT64
approach and \ref{fig:v6v4innetwork} shows our solution.
\begin{figure}[h]
  \includegraphics[scale=0.7]{v6-v4-innetwork}
  \centering
  \caption{In Network NAT64 translation}
  \label{fig:v6v4innetwork}
\end{figure}
\begin{figure}[h]
  \includegraphics[scale=0.7]{v6-v4-standard}
  \centering
  \caption{Standard NAT64 translation}
  \label{fig:v6v4standard}
\end{figure}
Currently network operators have to focus on two network stacks when
designing networks: IPv6 and IPv4. While in a small scale setup this
might not introduce significant complexity, figure
\ref{fig:v6v4mixed} shows how the complexity quickly grows
with the number of hosts.
\begin{figure}[h]
  \includegraphics[scale=0.4]{v6-v4-mixed}
  \centering
  \caption{Differenent network design with in network NAT64 translation}
  \label{fig:v6v4mixed}
\end{figure}
The in network solution does not only ease the installation and
deployment of IPv6, but it also allows line speed translation, because
it is compiled into target dependent low level code that can run in
ASICs~\cite{networks:_tofin},
FPGAs~\cite{netfpga:_p4_netpf_public_github}
or even in
software~\cite{_implem_your_switc_target_with_bmv2}.
Even on fast CPUs, software solutions like
tayga~\cite{lutchansky:_tayga_simpl_nat64_linux}
can be CPU bound and are
not capabale of translating protocols at line speed.