Telepresence in an IPv6 World. Simplify the Transition

Transcription

1 Telepresence in an IPv6 World Simplify the Transition

2 IPV6 has the potential to transform communications, collaboration, learning, entertainment, physical security and more. What You Will Learn If you plan to purchase new telepresence endpoints and use them to communicate outside your organization, those endpoints will need a way to communicate using IPv6. This white paper, intended for business and technology leaders in public and private sector organizations, explains the different approaches to supporting IPv6 telepresence: How you manage the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 addresses for telepresence endpoints will affect capital costs and ongoing IT workload. Encapsulating or translating IPv6 packets requires equipment at each location, adding to capital expenditures (CapEx) and operating expenses (OpEx). A telepresence communications solution with native IPv4 and IPv6 support minimizes initial and ongoing costs. What IPv6 Means to Your Telepresence Plans The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) handed out its last IPv4 addresses in February Therefore, new telepresence deployments used to communicate outside your own organization whether telepresence unit, PC, tablet, or smartphone will need a way to communicate using IPv6. IPv6 is already required in U.S. government agencies, and is part of Joint Interoperability Test Command (JITC) requirements. Even if it were not required, IPv6 provides compelling advantages: Increased address capacity: IPv4 addresses contain 32 bits, for up to 232 IP addresses (approximately 4.3 billion). In contrast, IPv6 addresses contain 128 bits, for up to of 2128 IP addresses. That number equates to billions and billions of addresses for every square meter on the planet, effectively abolishing limits on the number of devices each employee can use. Therefore, IPv6 has the potential to transform communications, collaboration, learning, entertainment, physical security, and more. 1 Cisco Systems, Inc.

3 The Cisco TelePresence VCS natively supports IPv4 and IPv6 protocols and endpoints, as well as translation or interworking between the two. Greater security: The IPv6 specification mandates use of IP Security (IPsec) to encrypt and authenticate all IP packets. In addition, the fact that every device has a unique address makes it inherently more difficult to gain unauthorized access to a device. Better ease of use, efficiency, and scalability: Telepresence and other real-time communications applications typically include the internal address as part of the packet payload. This address cannot be routed outside the organization. Therefore, if you are using an IPv4 endpoint for business-to-business telepresence, you generally need additional hardware, software, or both to perform Network Address Translation (NAT) from IPv4 to IPv6. With IPv6, in contrast, no translation is necessary because every device can have its own IPv6 address, which can be routed across the Internet. Although most organizations will continue to use NAT and firewalls for network edge security, not having to use it for communications protocols greatly simplifies configuration. Options for Supporting IPv6 Telepresence Endpoints Realistically, IPv4 and IPv6 will coexist in most organizations for many years to come, because there is no sense in replacing working IPv4 telepresence endpoints. Protecting your investment in existing IPv4 telepresence endpoints requires enabling them to communicate with both protocols: IPv4 for existing deployments and IPv6 for telepresence in new deployments. There are three approaches to supporting IPv6 telepresence endpoints: tunneling, translation, and native support: Tunneling refers to encapsulating IPv6 video packets inside IPv4 packets, and IPv4 video packets inside IPv6 packets. The main drawback is that tunneling effectively hides real address information from network devices, potentially bypassing security barriers. Tunneling also requires additional software and hardware, adding CapEx and ongoing OpEx. Translation from IPv4 to IPv6 also requires network-edge solutions at every site. But firewalls typically cannot translate H.323 and SIP telepresence traffic because the payload and packet have different IP addresses. Native support for IPv4 and IPv6 in endpoints avoids the drawbacks of tunneling and translation. Purchasing endpoints with native support helps preserve your existing telepresence investments as you migrate to IPv6. Why Cisco TelePresence Solutions for IPv6? Most Cisco TelePresence endpoints support IPv6 natively. They provide IPv6 features such as stateless autoconfiguration, IPv6 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), AAAA (Quad A) resource records for Domain Name System (DNS), and more. In addition, the Cisco TelePresence Video Communication Server (VCS) natively supports IPv4 and IPv6 protocols and endpoints, as well as translation or interworking between the two (Figure 1). Communications between IPv6-capable endpoints requires no translation or other overhead and stays native to the protocol. And when an employee using an IPv4 endpoint initiates a telepresence session with an internal or external IPv6 endpoint, the Cisco VCS automatically translates the communications to IPv6, eliminating the need for additional equipment to perform the translation. 2 Cisco Systems, Inc.

4 The Cisco VCS extends the life of your existing IPV4 telepresence investment, lowers the cost of adopting IPv6 and gives you the flexibility to use either H323 or SIP. Figure 1 - Cisco TelePresence VCS Supports Interworking Between IPv4 and IPv6 You can begin using the Cisco VCS now even if you currently have only IPv4- enabled endpoints. When you do implement your first IPv6 video endpoint, simply select the option to enable support for both IPv4 and IPv6, and assign an IPv6 address to the Cisco VCS. Existing IPv4 endpoints continue to point to the IPv4 address, and IPv6-enabled endpoints point to the IPv6 address. Native support for IPv4 and IPv6 on the Cisco VCS provides the following benefits: Extends life of your existing IPv4 telepresence investments: If instead you purchase an IPv6-only telepresence call-control solution, you will need to either replace all of your IPv4 telepresence endpoints or deploy hardware or software at each site to translate between IPv4 and IPv6. Lowers the cost of adopting IPv6: When you implement your first IPv6 telepresence endpoint, you will not need to invest in a new call-control solution. Gives you the flexibility to use either H.323 or Session Initiation Protocol (SIP): The Cisco VCS supports both protocols. If you are currently using the H.323 protocol, at any time you can shift to SIP. The Cisco VCS supports both H.323 and SIP communications, using both IPv4 and IPv6. Avoids additional licensing costs for endpoints or core network architecture: The per-call license covers all types of translation needed for that call: IPv4 to IPv6, SIP to H.323, and SIP and H.323 firewall traversal. Simplifies the user experience: The Cisco VCS supports Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) dialing. Instead of looking up and typing a lengthy IPv6 address, you can simply dial the other party s URI, such as jane.doe@company.com. 3 Cisco Systems, Inc.

5 Conclusion Conclusion If it has not happened already, your organization will likely soon purchase its first IPv6 telepresence endpoint. To continue using existing IPv4 telepresence endpoints, you need some way to support both protocols. Implementing the Cisco VCS saves you from having to invest in devices to perform tunneling or NAT. The Cisco VCS also simplifies the user experience through support for URI dialing. For More Information To learn more about the Cisco TelePresence Video Communications Server, please visit Americas Headquarters Cisco Systems, Inc. San Jose, CA Asia Pacific Headquarters Cisco Systems (USA) Pte. Ltd. Singapore Europe Headquarters Cisco Systems International BV Amsterdam The Netherlands Cisco has more than 200 offices worldwide. Addresses, phone numbers, and fax numbers are listed on the Cisco Website at Cisco and the Cisco Logo are trademarks of Cisco Systems, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco s trademarks can be found at Third party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company (1005R).