Current status and the future
direction of IPv6 in Japan
November, 2011
IPv4 Address Exhaustion Task Force,Japan

Table of Contents
1. IPv6 Day for Japanese networks andcontribution by Japanese cases to global IPv6
deployment.
2. Market Overview
3. Backbone operation– Commercial ISP

4. Last one mile operation
1. Broadband access(ADSL, FTTH, CATV)
2. Wireless access(LTE)5. Others
2

IPv6 Day for Japanese networks and contribution by Japanese cases to global IPv6
deployment.
Japanese IPv6 network has to develop IPv6 global service using the NGN(Next Generation Network)
access network platform, which is the closed IPv6 transport network provided by NTT group (NTT Eastand NTT West). In order to come up with this particular network environment, we defined twoarchitectures discussing with MIC(Ministry of Information and Communication) Japan and related
stakeholder organizations. One is PPPoE using tunneling technology, and the other is IPoE, in whichrouting information of roaming providers is advertized into NGN access network and IPv6 network
prefix is allocated to every CPN(Customer Premises Network). The IPoE is a kind of roaming service forroaming providers. Due to several technical limitations, the maximum number of roaming providers isthree, when we started the IPoE service in 2011.
At the first IPv6 Day in June 8 of 2011, Japanese Internet has not have those solutions in reality, sincethose solutions had just started the introduction stage. Here, the PPPoE service has been available from
June 1 of 2011, and IPoE has been available from July 21 of 2011. Both has been just available by NTT
East and NTT West for IPSes and for roaming providers with those date. The practical use of these twoservices has been progressed in these days. This means that, as November 2011 time‐frame, the IPv6
services provided by Japanese ISPes using these solutions (i.e., PPPoE and IPoE over NTT’s NGN accessnetwork) are just under development phase.
The first IPv6 Day has been carried out with the above environment. Then, the design and operational
experiences for the IPv6 Day contributed a lot of knowledge and practices to the IPv6 global service
provision over the closed IPv6 transmission network, i.e., NTT’s NGN access network. This is provisionof both the NGN’s native service (e.g., VoIP or IPTV) and the global IPv6 services, simultaneously.
3

IPv6 includes the multi‐home environment for CPN, in order to improve the robustness of CPN
connectivity or to avoid ISP lock‐on for CPN. End host interface can have multiple IP addresses and
CPN can have multiple network prefixes. As discussed and specified in RFC3484 and in RFC5220,
end‐host and CPN router adequately manage source IP address and destination IP address,
according to the network topology/status or to operational policies. Of course, the case, whereegress route and ingress route are different are different, is considered. Especially when we havea dominant access provider, we have to yield the environment, where every CPN operator easily
design and operate milti‐home network environment, in order to yield neutrality for accessproviders and to avoid the customer lock‐on by some particular backbone provider, especiallywhen we have a dominant access provider. This is also true, when we have multiple accessproviders. RFC3484 and RFC5220 discusses and specified the possible solutions for multi‐homing,
through we observe that most of end‐hosts and CPN routers do not well implement the defined
functions.
When we observe the current status of Japanese access networks from the above point of view,
we can see that (1) NTT’s NGN access network is a dominant access network provider in Japan,
and that (2) NTT’s NGN network provide very low IPv6 external connectivity, while providing very
high IPv6 connectivity for own network. Here, the reason why such a network development has
been carried out is so complicated government policies in Japan. As a general understanding,when we design an wide‐area dominant access network, even for NTT group, the different designfrom current network design using NGN’s closed IPv6 network will be applied to.
Now, we realize that the practical experience in Japan to provide global IPv6 connectivity overNTT’s NGN access network will contribute to establish the practical design, installation andoperation of large scale multi‐home development and deployment, using the practical andadvanced IPv6 network environment.
We briefly summarize what Japanese team did for the first IPv6 Day.

4

TCP session resetting
The fall‐back procedure is carried out, when the destination node is unreachable, though thedestination IPv6 address is resolved by DNS. Though RFC3484 defines and specified thenecessity of policy table implementation at multi‐homing nodes, most of nodes do not haveadequate policy table implementation, and each OS (Operating System) has different fall‐backbehavior. Based on this observation and evaluation in the practical network environment, NTT
East and West decided to apply the TCP session resetting on June 6, 2011 for the first IPv6 Day.
Development and delivery of policy management and control software (RFC3484)
The Task Force for IPv4 address exhaustion has collaborated with the WIDE Project for thesoftware development of policy management and control for NTT’s NGN multi‐homing case.
It is based on the RFC3484. And, the software was delivered to some advanced customers.
Based on the experiences and practices during the IPv6 Day and on the discussion andevaluation of IPv6 Day operation, we (Task Force on IPv4 address exhaustion) identify andwork on, at least, the following items.
As for the operational issue of fall‐back behavior, the essential resolution would be thedevelopment and the deployment of multi‐homing policy management table and appropriate
packet transmission mechanism at every node. For example, we may think the definition andoperation against the reception of ICMP destination unreachable message is important.
The multi‐home environment by the NTT’s NGN access network is not extraordinary case, but
is one of wide‐area and large scale cases. Actually, the work developed in RFC5220 and
RFC5221 is based on this understanding. Japanese team is happy to work on this important
issue for IPv6 and for the future Internet.
5

[References]
RFC 3684 (Feb. 2003)
R. Draves "Default Address Selection for Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)"
P.2, 3rd paragraph
The algorithms in this document are specified as a set of rules that define a partial ordering on the set of addresses that are available for use. In the case ofsource address selection, a node typically has multiple addresses assigned to its interfaces, and the source address ordering rules in section 5 define which
address is the "best" one to use. In the case of destination address selection, the DNS may return a set of addresses for a given name, and an application needs
to decide which one to use first, and in what order to try others should the first one not be reachable. The destination address ordering rules in section 6, whenapplied to the set of addresses returned by the DNS, provide such a recommended ordering.
This document also specifies policy hooks to allow administrative override of the default behavior. For example, using these hooks an administrator can specify
a preferred source prefix for use with a destination prefix, or prefer destination addresses with one prefix over addresses with another prefix. These hooks givean administrator flexibility in dealing with some multi‐homing and transition scenarios, but they are certainly not a panacea.
P.4
2.1. Policy Table
IPv6 implementations SHOULD support configurable address selection via a mechanism at least as powerful as the policy tables defined here. Note that at thetime of this writing there is only limited experience with the use of policies that select from a set of possible IPv6 addresses. As more experience is gained, therecommended default policies may change. Consequently it is important that implementations provide a way to change the default policies as more experienceis gained. Sections 10.3 and 10.4 provide examples of the kind of changes that might be needed.
P.11
6. Destination Address Selection
Rule 1: Avoid unusable destinations.
If DB is known to be unreachable or if Source(DB) is undefined, then prefer DA. Similarly, if DA is
known to be unreachable or if Source(DA) is undefined, then prefer DB.

RFC 5220 (July 2008)
A.Matsumoto, T.Fujisaki, R.Hiromi, K.Kanayama,“Problem Statement for Default Address Selection in Multi‐Prefix Environments: Operational Issues of RFC 3484 Default Rules
1. Introduction
In IPv6, a single physical link can have multiple prefixes assigned to it. In such cases, an end host may have multiple IP addresses assigned to an interface on thatlink. In the IPv4‐IPv6 dual‐stack environment or in a site connected to both a Unique Local Address (ULA) [RFC4193] and globally routable networks, an end hosttypically has multiple IP addresses. These are examples of the networks that we focus on in this document. In such an environment, an end host may encounter
some communication troubles.
Inappropriate source address selection at the end host causes unexpected asymmetric routing, filtering by a router, or discarding of packets because there is noroute to the host.

6Market Overview
in 10,000

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010 end of FY

Transition of Broadband subscribers (MIC)7

IPv6 available Major Services
FTTH

KDDI

Announced IPv6 adoption for all
current au hikari subscribers in April,2011 and expand to all Kanto areaby the end of July, 2011 and expand
to nationwide after 2012

7.2million

NTT East/West

Started provision of IPv6 Internet
access function to ISPs by tunnelingprotocol in June, 2011 and by native
protocol in July, 2011 on Flets hikari
Next (NGN)

K‐Opticom

Launched IPv6 Internet accessservice in July, 2011

ADSL

Softbank BB

Planning to provide IPv6 Internet
access service by 6rd

‐

CATV

Jupiter
Telecom

Planning to launch IPv6 accessservice in 2012‐

mobileNTT Docomo

Launched IPv6 Internet Access for
LTE in June 2011

0.2million
8

Backbone operation

Idea of offering OCN IPv6 Transit fee for OCN Services■Current■Current IPv6
IPv6 Service
Service fee
fee forfor OCNOCN Service
Service provided
provided to
to ISPISP andand Corporative
Corporative Company
Company has
has revised.
revised.
IPv6
Servicewill
propelasastandard
menu
and
the
fee
will
offer
the
same
price
as
IPv4
IPv6 Service will propel as a standard menu and the fee will offer the same price as IPv4 Service
Service■All■All functions
functions ofof IPv4
IPv4 Service
Service will
will bebe applied
applied toto IPv6
IPv6 Service
ServiceIPv6/IPv4 dual transit service
NTTCom/VerioOffering same usage fee
Global IPv6
For IPv4/IPv6 Service
Backbone
OCN

Backbone

IPv6 over IPv4 service

No additionalcharge required
for IPv6

IPv6
IPv6 Tunnel
TunnelTerminator
Terminator

Super
Super OCN
OCN service
serviceIPv4/IPv6
IPv4/IPv6 dual
dual

data

IPv4
headerdata

IPv6
headerOCN
Backbone

NTTCom/Verio
Global IPv6
Backbone

IPv4/IPv6
nativedata

IPv6
header

IPv4
headerTunnel encap

IPv4
IPv4 CPE
CPE

CPE
CPE

ＩＳＰ／CATVＩＳＰ／CATV
Network

ＩＳＰ／CATVＩＳＰ／CATV
Network

Router(IPv4)
Router(IPv4)
IPv4-NW

IPv6
IPv6Tunnel
TunnelTerminator
TerminatorIPv6-NW

Copyright © 2011 NTT Communications source: MIC Study Group on Advanced Use of Internet with IPv6 the 3rd interim Report,
Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000127670.pdf

9Broadband access ‐ADSL• Softbank BB• e‐Access• FLET’S ADSL
• Local ADSL

source: MIC Study Group on Advanced Use of Internet with IPv6 the
3rd interim Report,
http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000127670.pdf
source: MIC Competition Review in the Telecommunications
Business Field in FY2010

10

Broadband access ‐FTTH• NTT‐East and West– NGN(FLET’S HIKARI Next)– B‐Flet’s• KDDI• eo (K‐Opticom)• Others

11NTT East and West, NGN’s IPv6 PPPoE
Outline of IPv6 PPPoE• IPv6 Prefix will be assigned to User via PPPoE by ISP• new CPE for handling PPPoE(v6CP) and NAT66 is required to access both
NGN and the Internet.
• Dedicated ID and password for IPv6 tunnel must be set on IPv6 Adapter

Contents

The Internet (IPv6)

Mail
Servers,etc.

ISP(IPv6)
FLET’S HIKARINEXT (NGN)

PPPoE tunnel connects
between ISP and CPE(IPv6 Adapter)

Service specifications
Connection
methodPPPoE(IPv6)

Fee

Included in monthly
charge of FLET’S

IPv6 Prefix
assign method

DHCPv6‐PD via PPPoE

ISPs

PPPoE (IPv6)

and 128 ISPs in total

UNI

IPv6 Adapter

Remark

IPv6

source: MIC Study Group on Advanced Use of Internet with IPv6 the 3rd interim Report,
http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000127670.pdf

IPv6 adapter or similarfunction to terminate
PPPoE(v6CP) and NAT66
is required
12

NTT East and West, NGN’s IPv6 IPoE
Outline of IPv6 IPoE

Service specifications• VNE’s prefix will be assigned to UNI when user subscribe to ISP• Users are required to subscribe to NGN with “FLET’S v6 Option” to make
UNI‐UNI communications go through shortest path in NGNThe Internet (IPv6)

Contents

ISP(IPv6)
VNE(IPv6)
Communications between
NGN’s Users are completed
through shortest path

Mail
Servers,etc.

Connection
methodIPoE(IPv6)

Fee

Included in monthly charge of
FLET’S

IPv6 Prefix
assign method

RA or DHCPv6‐PD(VNE’s Prefix )ISPFLET’S HIKARI NEXT (NGN)

And some more ISPs *1

Remark
UNI

UNI

IPv6

IPv6

VNE (Virtual NW Enabler*2)– BBIX, Inc.
– Japan Network Enabler, Co.
– Internet Multifeed, Co.
*1: http://www.fletes.com/next/ipv6_ipoe/isp.html*2: A kind of roaming service provider

source: MIC Study Group on Advanced Use of Internet with IPv6 the 3rd interim Report,
http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000127670.pdf

13KDDI (dual stack)source: MIC Study Group on Advanced Use of Internet with IPv6 the 3rd interim Report,
http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000127670.pdf

14

Wireless Access LTE

source: MIC Study Group on Advanced Use of Internet with IPv6 the 3rd interim Report, 15
http://www.soumu.go.jp/main_content/000127670.pdf

CATV: Preparing for IPv4 address exhaustion
Action．Preparing for the new internet protocol• Application services, such as email, web-space, and the access services will be supported.
J:COM will preparing for the IPv6 in two steps
Step 1：IPv6-enabled mail, web-space.
A service can be accessed from the net, such as webmail, andweb-space, is made available in advance to IPv6.
Step 2：Deploying IPv6 address.
Provides IPv6 to our subscribers.

Step 1 :（October 2011）

The Internet
The Internet

support for email, webspace services via both IPv4,
and IPv6.

IPv6 In/Out traffic
J:COM
networks

Mail/Web servers

IPv4/IPv6 access-services••

Will not provides only IPv6 service, will provides native “dualstack” service. (IPv4 and IPv6 coexisting) Will begin trials ofdual-stack service, starts in 2012.
•
will provides IPv6 address before IPv4 address
exhaustion.
Will provide production-grade “dual-stack service”, once trials
have successfully completed.

Application servers

Step 2（starts in 2012, trial service)

Network devices

・Deploying IPv6 addressing
our subscribers.
・can be access both internal &external network via IPv6.

DHCPs

IPv4 or v6
addressing

Under consideration• IPv6 Access-service detail.
• Customer notification.
• Internal IPv6 training, especially call centers, and service engineers.
16

Confidential

CPE devices
Figure：IPv4/IPv6 access-services© Jupiter Telecommunications Co., Ltd.

List of ISPs providing IPv6 service
Company

ISP

IPv6 Service support site (English page with link, Japanese without )ASAHI Net,Inc.

ASAHI Net

http://asahi‐net.jp/en/support/news/101210_3.html

eAccess Ltd.

AOL

http://support.aolservice.jp/info/2010/11/ipv6_101130.html

Internet Initiative Japan Inc.

IIJ

http://www.iij.ad.jp/en/service/IPv6/index.html

NEC BIGLOBE, LTd.

BIGLOBE

http://support.biglobe.ne.jp/ipv6/

NTT Communications Corporation

OCN

http://www.ntt.com/ipv6/

NTT Plala Inc.

Plala

http://www.plala.or.jp/ipv6/

KDDI Corporaiton

au one net

http://www.auone‐net.jp/ipv6/

CNCI Group ( 8 CATV companies)

CATV

http://www.cnci.co.jp/ipv6.html

Sony Business Solutions Corporation

bit‐drive

http://www.bit‐drive.ne.jp/ipv6/

So‐net Entertainment Corporation

So‐nethttp://www.v6.so‐net.ne.jp/common/IPv6/index.html

Softbank Telecom Corp.

ODN/ SpinNet

http://www.odn.ne.jp/odn_info/ipv6/
http://www.spinnet.jp/csc/ipv6/

Softbank BB Corp.

Yahoo! BB

https://ybb.softbank.jp/ipv6/

Densan Co, Ltd

avis

http://www.avis.ne.jp/ipv6/

Dream Train Internet

DTI

http://dream.jp/ipv6/

nifty corporation@niftyhttp://support.nifty.com/support/ipv6/

NSK Internet@nsk

http://www.nsk.ad.jp/n_information/ipv6.html

UCOM

BROAD‐GATE
02

http://www.fttx.co.jp/Home/information/tabid/85/Default.aspx?itemid=27
17