Convergence study of IPv6 tunneling techniques

IPv4 address exhaustion pushed IETF to create IPv6, the improved substitute of IPv4. The Internet complexity and its enormous size prolong the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 process. This means that both versions will necessarily co-exist. Meanwhile, tunneling appears as a solution trend. The tunneling is a transition technique that is considered temporary till all ISPs would support IPv6. At this paper, we compare the routing convergence of two tunnel types, 6to4 and Manually Configured versus the conventional IPv4 and IPv6 protocols. We analyze the network resources consumed during cold start phase. Bandwidths occupied by routing traffic and convergence duration are measured. Finally we propose tunnel recommendations for different range of network resources. © 2014 IEEE.