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rfc:rfc6992

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) D. Cheng Request for Comments: 6992 Huawei Technologies Category: Informational M. Boucadair ISSN: 2070-1721 France Telecom

                                                             A. Retana
                                                         Cisco Systems
                                                             July 2013
               Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets

Abstract

 This document describes a routing scenario where IPv4 packets are
 transported over an IPv6 network, based on the methods described in
 RFCs 6145 and 6052, along with a separate OSPFv3 routing table for
 IPv4-embedded IPv6 routes in the IPv6 network.

Status of This Memo

 This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
 published for informational purposes.
 This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
 (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
 received public review and has been approved for publication by the
 Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
 approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
 Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
 Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
 and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
 http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6992.

Copyright Notice

 Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
 document authors.  All rights reserved.
 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
 Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
 (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
 publication of this document.  Please review these documents
 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
 to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
 include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
 the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
 described in the Simplified BSD License.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 1] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

Table of Contents

 1. Introduction ....................................................2
    1.1. The Scenario ...............................................3
    1.2. Routing Solution per RFC 5565 ..............................4
    1.3. An Alternative Routing Solution with OSPFv3 ................4
    1.4. OSPFv3 Routing with a Specific Topology ....................6
 2. Requirements Language ...........................................7
 3. Provisioning ....................................................7
    3.1. Deciding on the IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Topology ................7
    3.2. Maintaining a Dedicated IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Routing Table ...7
 4. Translation of IP Packets .......................................8
    4.1. Address Translation ........................................8
 5. Advertising IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Routes ...........................9
    5.1. Advertising IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Routes through an
         IPv6 Transit Network .......................................9
         5.1.1. Routing Metrics .....................................9
         5.1.2. Forwarding Address .................................10
    5.2. Advertising IPv4 Addresses into Client Networks ...........10
 6. Aggregation on IPv4 Addresses and Prefixes .....................10
 7. Forwarding .....................................................10
 8. Backdoor Connections ...........................................11
 9. Prevention of Loops ............................................11
 10. MTU Issues ....................................................11
 11. Security Considerations .......................................12
 12. Operational Considerations ....................................13
 13. Acknowledgements ..............................................14
 14. References ....................................................14
    14.1. Normative References .....................................14
    14.2. Informative References ...................................14

1. Introduction

 This document describes a routing scenario where IPv4 packets are
 transported over an IPv6 network, based on [RFC6145] and [RFC6052],
 along with a separate OSPFv3 routing table for IPv4-embedded IPv6
 routes in the IPv6 network.  This document does not introduce any new
 IPv6 transition mechanism.
 In this document, the following terminology is used:
 o  An IPv4-embedded IPv6 address denotes an IPv6 address that
    contains an embedded 32-bit IPv4 address constructed according to
    the rules defined in [RFC6052].
 o  IPv4-embedded IPv6 packets are packets of which destination
    addresses are IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 2] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

 o  AFBR (Address Family Border Router) [RFC5565] refers to an edge
    router that supports both IPv4 and IPv6 address families, but the
    backbone network it connects to only supports either the IPv4 or
    IPv6 address family.
 o  AFXLBR (Address Family Translation Border Router) is defined in
    this document.  It refers to a border router that supports both
    IPv4 and IPv6 address families located on the boundary of an IPv4-
    only network and an IPv6-only network and that is capable of
    performing IP header translation between IPv4 and IPv6 [RFC6145].

1.1. The Scenario

 Due to exhaustion of public IPv4 addresses, there has been a
 continuing effort within the IETF to investigate and specify IPv6
 transitional techniques.  In the course of the transition, it is
 certain that networks based on IPv4 and IPv6 technologies,
 respectively, will coexist at least for some time.  One such scenario
 is the interconnection of IPv4-only and IPv6-only networks, and in
 particular, when an IPv6-only network serves as an interconnection
 between several segregated IPv4-only networks.  In this scenario,
 IPv4 packets are transported over the IPv6 network between IPv4
 networks.  In order to forward an IPv4 packet from a source IPv4
 network to the destination IPv4 network, IPv4 reachability
 information must be exchanged between the IPv4 networks via some
 mechanism.
 In general, running an IPv6-only network would reduce operational
 expenditures and optimize operations as compared to an IPv4-IPv6
 dual-stack environment.  Some proposed solutions allow the delivery
 of IPv4 services over an IPv6-only network.  This document specifies
 an engineering technique that separates the routing table dedicated
 to IPv4-embedded IPv6 destinations from the routing table used for
 native IPv6 destinations.
 OSPFv3 is designed to support multiple instances.  Maintaining a
 separate routing table for IPv4-embedded IPv6 routes would simplify
 implementation, troubleshooting, and operation; it would also prevent
 overload of the native IPv6 routing table.  A separate routing table
 can be generated from a separate routing instance.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 3] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

1.2. Routing Solution per RFC 5565

 The aforementioned scenario is described in [RFC5565], i.e., the
 IPv4-over-IPv6 scenario, where the network core is IPv6-only and the
 interconnected IPv4 networks are called IPv4 client networks.  The
 P Routers (Provider Routers) in the core only support IPv6, but the
 AFBRs support IPv4 on interfaces facing IPv4 client networks and IPv6
 on interfaces facing the core.  The routing solution defined in
 [RFC5565] for this scenario is to run IBGP among AFBRs to exchange
 IPv4 routing information in the core, and the IPv4 packets are
 forwarded from one IPv4 client network to the other through a
 softwire using tunneling technology, such as MPLS, LSP, GRE,
 L2TPv3, etc.

1.3. An Alternative Routing Solution with OSPFv3

 In this document, we propose an alternative routing solution for the
 scenario described in Section 1.1 where several segregated IPv4
 networks, called IPv4 client networks, are interconnected by an IPv6
 network.  The IPv6 network and the interconnected IPv4 networks may
 or may not belong to the same Autonomous System (AS).  We refer to
 the border node on the boundary of an IPv4 client network and the
 IPv6 network as an Address Family Translation Border Router (AFXLBR),
 which supports both the IPv4 and IPv6 address families and is capable
 of translating an IPv4 packet to an IPv6 packet, and vice versa,
 according to [RFC6145].  The described scenario is illustrated in
 Figure 1.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 4] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

                      +--------+   +--------+
                      |  IPv4  |   |  IPv4  |
                      | Client |   | Client |
                      | Network|   | Network|
                      +--------+   +--------+
                          |   \     /   |
                          |    \   /    |
                          |     \ /     |
                          |      X      |
                          |     / \     |
                          |    /   \    |
                          |   /     \   |
                      +--------+   +--------+
                      | AFXLBR |   | AFXLBR |
                   +--| IPv4/6 |---| IPv4/6 |--+
                   |  +--------+   +--------+  |
     +--------+    |                           |    +--------+
     |  IPv6  |    |                           |    |  IPv6  |
     | Client |----|                           |----| Client |
     | Network|    |            IPv6           |    | Network|
     +--------+    |            only           |    +--------+
                   |                           |
                   |  +--------+   +--------+  |
                   +--| AFXLBR |---| AFXLBR |--+
                      | IPv4/6 |   | IPv4/6 |
                      +--------+   +--------+
                          |   \     /   |
                          |    \   /    |
                          |     \ /     |
                          |      X      |
                          |     / \     |
                          |    /   \    |
                          |   /     \   |
                      +--------+   +--------+
                      |  IPv4  |   |  IPv4  |
                      | Client |   | Client |
                      | Network|   | Network|
                      +--------+   +--------+
 Figure 1: Segregated IPv4 Networks Interconnected by an IPv6 Network
 Since the scenario occurs most commonly within an organization, an
 IPv6 prefix can be locally allocated and used by AFXLBRs to construct
 IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses [RFC6052].  The embedded IPv4 address or
 prefix belongs to an IPv4 client network that is connected to the
 AFXLBR.  An AFXLBR injects IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses and prefixes
 into the IPv6 network using OSPFv3, and it also installs
 IPv4-embedded IPv6 routes advertised by other AFXLBRs.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 5] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

 When an AFXLBR receives an IPv4 packet from a locally connected IPv4
 client network destined to a remote IPv4 client network, it
 translates the IPv4 header to the relevant IPv6 header [RFC6145], and
 in that process, the source and destination IPv4 addresses are
 translated into IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses, respectively [RFC6052].
 The resulting IPv6 packet is then forwarded to the AFXLBR that
 connects to the destination IPv4 client network.  The remote AFXLBR
 derives the IPv4 source and destination addresses from the IPv4-
 embedded IPv6 addresses, respectively [RFC6052], and translates the
 header of the received IPv6 packet to the relevant IPv4 header
 [RFC6145].  The resulting IPv4 packet is then forwarded according to
 the IPv4 routing table maintained on the AFXLBR.
 There are use cases where the proposed routing solution is useful.
 One case is that some border nodes do not participate in IBGP for the
 exchange of routes, or IBGP is not used at all.  Another case is when
 tunnels are not deployed in the IPv6 network, or native IPv6
 forwarding is preferred.  Note that with this routing solution, the
 IPv4 and IPv6 header translation performed in both directions by the
 AFXLBR is stateless.

1.4. OSPFv3 Routing with a Specific Topology

 In general, IPv4-embedded IPv6 packets can be forwarded just like
 native IPv6 packets with OSPFv3 running in the IPv6 network.
 However, this would require that IPv4-embedded IPv6 routes be flooded
 throughout the entire IPv6 network and stored on every router.  This
 is not desirable from a scaling perspective.  Moreover, since all
 IPv6 routes are stored in the same routing table, it would be
 inconvenient to manage the resource required for routing and
 forwarding based on traffic category, if so desired.
 To improve the situation, a separate OSPFv3 routing table dedicated
 to the IPv4-embedded IPv6 topology can be constructed; that table
 would be solely used for routing IPv4-embedded IPv6 packets in the
 IPv6 network.  The IPv4-embedded IPv6 topology includes all the
 participating AFXLBRs and a set of P Routers providing redundant
 connectivity with alternate routing paths.
 To realize this, a separate OSPFv3 instance is configured in the IPv6
 network [RFC5838].  This instance operates on all participating
 AFXLBRs and a set of P routers that interconnect them.  As a result,
 there would be a dedicated IPv4-embedded IPv6 topology that is
 maintained on all these routers, along with a dedicated IPv4-embedded
 IPv6 routing table.  This routing table in the IPv6 network is solely
 for forwarding IPv4-embedded IPv6 packets.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 6] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

 This document elaborates on how configuration is done with this
 method and on related routing issues.
 This document only focuses on unicast routing for IPv4-embedded IPv6
 packets using OSPFv3.

2. Requirements Language

 The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
 "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
 document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC2119].

3. Provisioning

3.1. Deciding on the IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Topology

 Before deploying configurations that use a separate OSPFv3 routing
 table for IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses and prefixes, a decision must
 be made regarding the set of routers and their interfaces in the IPv6
 network that should be part of the IPv4-embedded IPv6 topology.
 For the purpose of this IPv4-embedded IPv6 topology, all AFXLBRs that
 connect to IPv4 client networks MUST be members of this topology.  An
 AFXLBR MUST have at least one connection with a P Router in the IPv6
 network or another AFXLBR.
 The IPv4-embedded IPv6 topology is a subtopology of the entire IPv6
 network, and if all routers (including AFXLBRs and P routers) and all
 their interfaces are included, the two topologies converge.
 Generally speaking, when this subtopology contains more
 interconnected P Routers, there would be more routing paths across
 the IPv6 network from one IPv4 client network to the other; however,
 this requires more routers in the IPv6 network to participate in
 IPv4-embedded IPv6 routing.  In any case, the IPv4-embedded IPv6
 topology MUST be continuous with no partitions.

3.2. Maintaining a Dedicated IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Routing Table

 In an IPv6 network, in order to maintain a separate IPv6 routing
 table that contains routes for IPv4-embedded IPv6 destinations only,
 OSPFv3 needs to use the mechanism defined in [RFC5838].
 It is assumed that the IPv6 network that is interconnected with IPv4
 networks as described in this document is under one administration,
 and as such an OSPFv3 Instance ID (IID) is allocated locally and used
 for OSPFv3 operation dedicated to unicast IPv4-embedded IPv6 routing
 in an IPv6 network.  This IID is configured on OSPFv3 router
 interfaces that participate in the IPv4-embedded IPv6 topology.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 7] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

 A locally configured OSPFv3 IID is allocated in the range 192 to 255,
 inclusive, in the "OSPFv3 Instance ID Address Family Values"
 registry; this range is reserved for "Private Use" [RFC6969].  This
 IID must be used to encode the "Instance ID" field in the packet
 header of OSPFv3 packets associated with the OSPFv3 instance.
 In addition, the AF-bit in the OSPFv3 Option field MUST be set.
 During Hello packet processing, an adjacency may only be established
 when the received Hello packet contains the same Instance ID as the
 Instance ID configured on the receiving OSPFv3 interface.  This
 insures that only interfaces configured as part of the OSPFv3 unicast
 IPv4-embedded IPv6 topology are used for IPv4-embedded IPv6 unicast
 routing.
 For more details, the reader is referred to [RFC5838].

4. Translation of IP Packets

 When transporting IPv4 packets across an IPv6 network via the
 mechanism described above (Section 3.2), an IPv4 packet is translated
 to an IPv6 packet at the ingress AFXLBR, and the IPv6 packet is
 translated back to an IPv4 packet at the egress AFXLBR.  IP packet
 header translation is accomplished in a stateless manner according to
 rules specified in [RFC6145]; the details of address translation are
 explained in the next subsection.

4.1. Address Translation

 Prior to address translation, an IPv6 prefix is allocated by the
 operator, and it is used to form IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses.
 The IPv6 prefix can either be the IPv6 well-known prefix (WKP) 64:
 ff9b::/96 or a network-specific prefix that is unique to the
 organization; for the latter case, the IPv6 prefix length may be 32,
 40, 48, 56, or 64.  In either case, this IPv6 prefix is used during
 the address translation between an IPv4 address and an IPv4-embedded
 IPv6 address, as described in [RFC6052].
 During translation from an IPv4 header to an IPv6 header at an
 ingress AFXLBR, the source IPv4 address and destination IPv4 address
 are translated into the corresponding source IPv6 address and
 destination IPv6 address, respectively.  During translation from an
 IPv6 header to an IPv4 header at an egress AFXLBR, the source IPv6
 address and destination IPv6 address are translated into the
 corresponding source IPv4 address and destination IPv4 address,
 respectively.  Note that address translation is accomplished in a
 stateless manner.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 8] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

 When an IPv6 WKP is used, [RFC6052] allows only global IPv4 addresses
 to be embedded in the IPv6 address.  An IPv6 address composed of a
 WKP and a non-global IPv4 address is hence invalid, and packets that
 contain such an address received by an AFXLBR are dropped.
 In the case where both the IPv4 client networks and the IPv6 transit
 network belong to the same organization, non-global IPv4 addresses
 may be used with a network-specific prefix [RFC6052].

5. Advertising IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Routes

 In order to forward IPv4 packets to the proper destination across an
 IPv6 network, IPv4 reachability information needs to be disseminated
 throughout the IPv6 network.  This is performed by AFXLBRs that
 connect to IPv4 client networks using OSPFv3.
 With the scenario described in this document, i.e., a set of AFXLBRs
 that interconnect multiple IPv4 client networks with an IPv6 network,
 the IPv4 networks and IPv6 networks belong to the same or separate
 Autonomous Systems (ASs), and as such, these AFXLBRs behave as AS
 Boundary Routers (ASBRs).

5.1. Advertising IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Routes through an IPv6 Transit

    Network
 IPv4 addresses and prefixes in an IPv4 client network are translated
 into IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses and prefixes, respectively, using
 the IPv6 prefix allocated by the operator and the method specified in
 [RFC6052].  These routes are then advertised by one or more attached
 ASBRs into the IPv6 transit network using AS-External-LSAs [RFC5340],
 i.e., with advertising scope comprising the entire Autonomous System.

5.1.1. Routing Metrics

 By default, the metric in an AS-External-LSA that carries an IPv4-
 embedded IPv6 address or prefixes is a Type 1 external metric, which
 is comparable to the link state metric, and we assume that in most
 cases OSPFv2 is used in client IPv4 networks.  This metric is added
 to the metric of the intra-AS path to the ASBR during the OSPFv3
 route calculation.  Through ASBR configuration, the metric can be set
 to a Type 2 external metric, which is considered much larger than the
 metric for any intra-AS path.  Refer to the OSPFv3 specification
 [RFC5340] for more details.  In either case, an external metric may
 take the same value as in an IPv4 network (using OSPFv2 or another
 routing protocol) but may also be specified based on some routing
 policy, the details of which are beyond the scope of this document.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 9] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

5.1.2. Forwarding Address

 If the "Forwarding Address" field of an OSPFv3 AS-External-LSA is
 used to carry an IPv6 address, that address must also be an
 IPv4-embedded IPv6 address where the embedded IPv4 address is the
 destination address in an IPv4 client network.  However, since an
 AFXLBR sits on the border of an IPv4 network and an IPv6 network, it
 is RECOMMENDED that the "Forwarding Address" field not be used, so
 that the AFXLBR can make the forwarding decision based on its own
 IPv4 routing table.

5.2. Advertising IPv4 Addresses into Client Networks

 IPv4-embedded IPv6 routes injected into the IPv6 network from one
 IPv4 client network MAY be advertised into another IPv4 client
 network after the associated destination addresses and prefixes are
 translated back to IPv4 addresses and prefixes, respectively.  This
 operation is similar to normal OSPFv3 operation, wherein an
 AS-External-LSA can be advertised in a non-backbone area by default.
 An IPv4 client network can limit which advertisements it receives
 through configuration.
 For the purpose of this document, IPv4-embedded IPv6 routes MUST NOT
 be advertised into any IPv6 client networks that are also connected
 to the IPv6 transit network.

6. Aggregation on IPv4 Addresses and Prefixes

 In order to reduce the amount of Link State Advertisements (LSAs)
 that are injected into the IPv6 network, an implementation should
 provide mechanisms to aggregate IPv4 addresses and prefixes at an
 AFXLBR prior to advertisement as IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses and
 prefixes.  In general, the aggregation practice should be based on
 routing policy, which is beyond the scope of this document.

7. Forwarding

 There are three cases applicable to forwarding IP packets in the
 scenario described in this document:
 1.  On an AFXLBR, if an IPv4 packet is received on an interface
     connecting to an IPv4 segregated client network with a
     destination IPv4 address belonging to another IPv4 client
     network, the header of the packet is translated to the
     corresponding IPv6 header as described in Section 4, and the
     packet is then forwarded to the destination AFXLBR that
     advertised the IPv4-embedded IPv6 address into the IPv6 network.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 10] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

 2.  On an AFXLBR, if an IPv4-embedded IPv6 packet is received and the
     embedded destination IPv4 address is in its IPv4 routing table,
     the header of the packet is translated to the corresponding IPv4
     header as described in Section 4, and the packet is then
     forwarded accordingly.
 3.  On any router that is within the IPv4-embedded IPv6 topology
     subset of the IPv6 network, if an IPv4-embedded IPv6 packet is
     received and a route is found in the IPv4-embedded IPv6 routing
     table, the packet is forwarded to the IPv6 next hop, just like
     the handling for a normal IPv6 packet, without any translation.
 The classification of an IPv4-embedded IPv6 packet is done according
 to the IPv6 prefix of the destination address, which is either the
 WKP (i.e., 64:ff9b::/96) or locally allocated as defined in
 [RFC6052].

8. Backdoor Connections

 In some deployments, IPv4 client networks are interconnected across
 the IPv6 network but are also directly connected to each other.  The
 direct connections between IPv4 client networks, sometimes called
 "backdoor" connections, can certainly be used to transport IPv4
 packets between IPv4 client networks.  In general, backdoor
 connections are preferred over the IPv6 network, since no address
 family translation is required.

9. Prevention of Loops

 If an LSA sent from an AFXLBR into a client network could then be
 received by another AFXLBR, it would be possible for routing loops to
 occur.  To prevent loops, an AFXLBR MUST set the DN bit [RFC4576] in
 any LSA that it sends to a client network.  The AFXLBR MUST also
 ignore any LSA received from a client network that already has the DN
 bit set.

10. MTU Issues

 In the IPv6 network, there are no new MTU issues introduced by this
 document.  If a separate OSPFv3 instance (per [RFC5838]) is used for
 IPv4-embedded IPv6 routing, the MTU handling in the IPv6 network is
 the same as that of the default OSPFv3 instance.
 However, the MTU in the IPv6 network may be different than that of
 IPv4 client networks.  Since an IPv6 router will never fragment a
 packet, the packet size of any IPv4-embedded IPv6 packet entering the
 IPv6 network must be equal to or less than the MTU of the IPv6
 network.  In order to achieve this requirement, it is recommended

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 11] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

 that AFXLBRs perform IPv6 path discovery among themselves.  The
 resulting MTU, after taking into account the difference between the
 IPv4 header length and the IPv6 header length, must be "propagated"
 into IPv4 client networks, e.g., included in the OSPFv2 Database
 Description packet.
 The details of passing the proper MTU into IPv4 client networks are
 beyond the scope of this document.

11. Security Considerations

 There are several security aspects that require attention in the
 deployment practices described in this document.
 In the OSPFv3 transit network, the security considerations for OSPFv3
 are handled as usual, and in particular, authentication mechanisms
 described in [RFC6506] can be deployed.
 When a separate OSPFv3 instance is used to support IPv4-embedded IPv6
 routing, the same Security Association (SA) [RFC4552] MUST be used by
 the embedded IPv4 address instance as other instances utilizing the
 same link, as specified in [RFC5838].
 Security considerations as documented in [RFC6052] must also be
 thought through and properly implemented, including the following:
 o  The IPv6 prefix that is used to carry an embedded IPv4 address
    (refer to Section 4.1) must be configured by the authorized
    operator on all participating AFXLBRs in a secure manner.  This is
    to help prevent a malicious attack resulting in network
    disruption, denial of service, and possible information
    disclosure.
 o  Effective mechanisms (such as reverse path checking) must be
    implemented in the IPv6 transit network (including AFXLBRs) to
    prevent spoofing of embedded IPv4 addresses, which otherwise might
    be used as source addresses of malicious packets.
 o  If firewalls are used in IPv4 and/or IPv6 networks, configuration
    of the routers must be consistent, so that there are no holes in
    IPv4 address filtering.
 The details of security handling are beyond the scope of this
 document.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 12] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

12. Operational Considerations

 This document puts together some mechanisms based on existing
 technologies developed by the IETF as an integrated solution to
 transport IPv4 packets over an IPv6 network using a separate OSPFv3
 routing table.  There are several aspects of these mechanisms that
 require attention for deployment and operation.
 The tunnel-based solution documented in [RFC5565] and the solution
 proposed in this document are both used for transporting IPv4 packets
 over an IPv6 network, using different mechanisms.  The two methods
 are not related to each other, and they can coexist in the same
 network if so deployed, without any conflict.
 If one approach is to be deployed, the operator will decide which
 approach to use.  Note that each approach has its own characteristics
 and requirements.  For example, the tunnel-based solution requires a
 mesh of inter-AFBR softwires (tunnels) spanning the IPv6 network, as
 well as IBGP to exchange routes between AFBRs [RFC5565]; the approach
 in this document requires AFXLBRs that are capable of performing
 IPv4-IPv6 packet header translation per [RFC6145].
 To deploy the solution as documented here, some configurations are
 required.  An IPv6 prefix must first be chosen that is used to form
 all the IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses and prefixes advertised by
 AFXLBRs in the IPv6 network; refer to Section 4.1 for details.  The
 IPv4-embedded IPv6 routing table is created by using a separate
 OSPFv3 instance in the IPv6 network.  As described in Section 3.2,
 this configuration is accomplished according to the mechanism
 described in [RFC5838].
 Note that this document does not change any behavior of OSPFv3, and
 the existing or common practice should apply in the context of
 scalability.  For example, the amount of routes that are advertised
 by OSPFv3 is one key concern.  With the solution as described in this
 document, IPv4-embedded IPv6 addresses and prefixes will be injected
 by AFXLBRs into some part of the IPv6 network (see Section 3.1 for
 details), and a separate routing table will be used for IPv4-embedded
 IPv6 routing.  Care must be taken during network design such that 1)
 aggregations are performed on IPv4 addresses and prefixes before
 being advertised in the IPv6 network as described in Section 6, and
 2) estimates are made as to the amount of IPv4-embedded IPv6 routes
 that would be disseminated in the IPv6 network and to the size of the
 separate OSPFv3 routing table.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 13] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

13. Acknowledgements

 Many thanks to Acee Lindem, Dan Wing, Joel Halpern, Mike Shand, and
 Brian Carpenter for their comments.

14. References

14.1. Normative References

 [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
            Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
 [RFC4576]  Rosen, E., Psenak, P., and P. Pillay-Esnault, "Using a
            Link State Advertisement (LSA) Options Bit to Prevent
            Looping in BGP/MPLS IP Virtual Private Networks (VPNs)",
            RFC 4576, June 2006.
 [RFC5565]  Wu, J., Cui, Y., Metz, C., and E. Rosen, "Softwire Mesh
            Framework", RFC 5565, June 2009.
 [RFC5838]  Lindem, A., Mirtorabi, S., Roy, A., Barnes, M., and R.
            Aggarwal, "Support of Address Families in OSPFv3",
            RFC 5838, April 2010.
 [RFC6145]  Li, X., Bao, C., and F. Baker, "IP/ICMP Translation
            Algorithm", RFC 6145, April 2011.
 [RFC6969]  Retana, A. and D. Cheng, "OSPFv3 Instance ID Registry
            Update", RFC 6969, July 2013.

14.2. Informative References

 [RFC4552]  Gupta, M. and N. Melam, "Authentication/Confidentiality
            for OSPFv3", RFC 4552, June 2006.
 [RFC5340]  Coltun, R., Ferguson, D., Moy, J., and A. Lindem, "OSPF
            for IPv6", RFC 5340, July 2008.
 [RFC6052]  Bao, C., Huitema, C., Bagnulo, M., Boucadair, M., and X.
            Li, "IPv6 Addressing of IPv4/IPv6 Translators", RFC 6052,
            October 2010.
 [RFC6506]  Bhatia, M., Manral, V., and A. Lindem, "Supporting
            Authentication Trailer for OSPFv3", RFC 6506,
            February 2012.

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 14] RFC 6992 Routing for IPv4-Embedded IPv6 Packets July 2013

Authors' Addresses

 Dean Cheng
 Huawei Technologies
 2330 Central Expressway
 Santa Clara, California  95050
 USA
 EMail: dean.cheng@huawei.com
 Mohamed Boucadair
 France Telecom
 Rennes,  35000
 France
 EMail: mohamed.boucadair@orange.com
 Alvaro Retana
 Cisco Systems
 7025 Kit Creek Rd.
 Research Triangle Park, North Carolina  27709
 USA
 EMail: aretana@cisco.com

Cheng, et al. Informational [Page 15]

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