[arin-discuss] urgency of IPv6

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

On 6/29/2010 6:05 AM, George, Wes E IV [NTK] wrote:
> I rarely leave my sig file in postings, because I don't think it's
> relevant, but I'm going to this time, for obvious reasons. At the
> risk of feeding the troll, my comments inline below.
>
> Thanks, Wes _________________________________ Wesley George Sprint
> Core Network Engineering - IP http://www.sprint.net
>
> -----Original Message----- From: arin-discuss-bounces at arin.net
> [mailto:arin-discuss-bounces at arin.net] On Behalf Of Ted Mittelstaedt
> Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 5:15 PM To: Owen DeLong Cc:
> arin-discuss at arin.net Subject: Re: [arin-discuss] urgency of IPv6
>
>
>
> On 6/28/2010 1:36 PM, Owen DeLong wrote:
>>>>
> no, you are not
>> correctly understanding how the cellular network you are using is
>> actually working.
>>
>> First, neither of those networks is IPv6 yet, if you check, you'll
>> see that your phones still just have IPv4 addresses.
>
> While there is no way to go into any setting on the phone and check
> it's IP address, someone wrote a (free) diagnostic network app you
> can run on WM5 that DOES tell the actual number on the phone.  It IS
> an IPv6 number.   Most people probably are confused because going to
> whatismyip.com or some such gives them an IPv4 address. I'll check
> the Android phone but I strongly doubt, with their brand new phone,
> that it uses IPv4.
>
> [[WEG]] I can say with absolute certainty that we (sprint) *are*
> giving you an IPv4 address and are *not* giving you an IPv6 address
> systematically. However, there are several asterisks to that
> statement. First, many (not necessarily all) WM phones have 6to4
> (RFC3068) enabled. This means that if they get a routable IPv4
> address, they'll generate their own IPv6 address. It'll be in the
> 2002::/16 range. This means that in theory they are doing IPv6, but
> they are beholden to the relatively broken set of 6to4 relays and
> asymmetric routing that this brings, not to mention any overzealous
> equipment in the path that blocks protocol 41, and it will only be
> used to connect to IPv6-enabled websites, not as a translation for
> IPv4.

OK that explains it, I knew I saw an IPv6 address on that phone.

Just out of curiosity, I put in http://www.sprintv6.net/ to my phone
and I got the:

"You have reached this site via IPv4.  Ask your Internet service
provider about IPv6"  message.  That's from Sprint's network so it
looks like Sprint itself has some "overzealous equipment in the path" ;-)

> Second, both the iPhone and Android have support for IPv6 in
> the OS -- on WiFi. If you connect it to an IPv6-enabled network, it
> will get an address, and theoretically will talk to IPv6-capable
> devices via IPv6. I don't have access to a WM phone with WiFi to
> determine if it does the same. It probably depends on the version.
> http://www.personal.psu.edu/dvm105/blogs/ipv6/2010/05/ipv6-on-smartphones---its-happ.html
>
>
 > However, they do NOT do this over the 3G interface, at least not yet.
 > Without getting into too much special sauce, on CDMA it's a chipset
 > issue more than a software issue, so it's not always as simple as
 > pushing a software update to phones to make it work.

OK that part I don't understand.  Why didn't Sprint
and the rest of the major US carriers get together and flex their
muscles and tell the unnamed Korean or Chinese manufacturers who make 
the CDMA chipsets that they had to modify the CDMA silicon to support 
IPv6 years and years ago?

>
> Sprint does their best to hide this from the general public but I
> can provide screen shots if needed. [[WEG]] Again with the
> big-company conspiracy theory! We're not trying to hide anything from
> anyone. We released a press release a few weeks ago saying that we
> were rolling out IPv6 on our wireless network in 2012, wireline this
> year, and VPN next year. You're not part of some double-secret
> IPv6-on-cellular club, sorry.
>

Sorry about that, I should have blamed Motorola, since it was they
who manufactured my phone and selected the OS on it.  Since I was
given the phone and someone else is paying the bill I didn't have
much choice.

So, I assume the HTC EVO 4G supports IPv6 over the wireless?  (or
will once Sprint rolls it out in 2012)?  Or will that phone be
discarded in favor of yet a new, unreleased phone, for IPv6 support?

Ted