Failure of IPv6 #1

 IPv6 is not as popular as it was expected. There are a number of issues with it. Here I wrote down a list 2 years ago with my observation.

Why IPv6 deployment is so slow? What are the issues?

Here is my observation and critics

- IPv4 is designed with minimal requirement due to various hardware constraints in those days. However, IPv6 is designed with various objectives which makes it too complicated to deploy.

- IPv6 is a science project rather than a business project.

- Market acceptance for IPv6 would be better if it just reuses what IPv4 did successfully.

- For core network, IPv6 is fine, but it poses quite a number of user problems at the very end.

- SLAAC could be problematic from management point of view. Multiple IPv6 could be associated with one device. Tracking MAC address instead of IP address for security/firewall is clumsy.

- Design of RA for gateway announcement posts certain issues, e.g. security.

- DHCPv6 is totally different from DHCPv4, e.g. no gateway address, subnet mask unknown

- IPv6 consumes more resources. One device could have more than 3 IPv6 - link local, ULA and multiple GUA. This costs 3x resource at least in hardware implementation with PD prefixes in network devices.

- Prefix delegation is not a clever design in my view for home use. Most needs security. NAT44 does the work nicely today.

- Difficult for CPE to implement IPv6 feature. e.g. IPv6 Prefix change in reboot will cause change of IPv6 in each device. How to track? Service via DDNS deployment is much more complicated.  

- No IPv6 GUA support in PPP/PPPoE. Make it very complicated in dual stack operation with DHCPv6. IETF problem in my view

- Difficult to remember 32 hex digit. Not normal human capability friendly.

Possible ways to solve the issues

- DNS could be one direction to make it user friendly

- IPv8? Reduction of IPv6 current function and make it simpler to use.