Analysis of BGP4 Peering Establishment Time on IPv6 Connection over 6PE and 6VPE

Abstract

Nowadays, because of the exhaustion of IPv4 address space, IPv6 is increasingly being used on enterprise networks. Usually, an enterprise uses an MPLS network from a Service Provider to interconnect their IPv4 network sites. Although MPLS Service Providers mostly built their MPLS backbone based on IPv4, their MPLS backbone have the capability to transport IPv6 traffic of their customers. Two methods can be used by the MPLS Service Provider to connect its customer IPv6 network, which is 6PE (IPv6 Provider Edge Routers) and 6VPE (IPv6 VPN Provider Edge Router). Enterprises generally use a BGP routing protocol to interconnect their networks, and they need to use the best method that suits their requirement from their MPLS Service Provider to transport their IPv6 traffic (including the BGP protocol). The MPLS Service Providers need to consider the advantages and disadvantages of both methods. This paper illustrates the analysis of BGP4 (current BGP version) IPv6 peering establishment time over 6PE and 6VPE methods. The MPLS Service Providers can use the analysis results of this study to determine the suited method to interconnect its customers' IPv6 networks.