WG Review: IPv6 Operations (v6ops)

[The IESG <[e-mail]>]

The IPv6 Operations (v6ops) WG in the Operations and Management Area of the
IETF is undergoing rechartering. The IESG has not made any determination yet.
The following draft charter was submitted, and is provided for informational
purposes only. Please send your comments to the IESG mailing list
([e-mail]) by 2025-10-20.

IPv6 Operations (v6ops)
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Current status: Active WG

Chairs:
  XiPeng Xiao <[e-mail]>
  Nick Buraglio <[e-mail]>

Assigned Area Director:
  Mohamed Boucadair <[e-mail]>

Operations and Management Area Directors:
  Mahesh Jethanandani <[e-mail]>
  Mohamed Boucadair <[e-mail]>

Technical advisors:
  Ron Bonica <[e-mail]>

Mailing list:
  Address: [e-mail]
  To subscribe: https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/v6ops
  Archive: https://mailarchive.ietf.org/arch/browse/v6ops/

Group page: https://datatracker.ietf.org/group/v6ops/

Charter: https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/charter-ietf-v6ops/

The V6OPS Working Group (WG) facilitates the universal deployment of IPv6. It
will focus on both IPv6 deployment and IPv6 traffic growth.

Also, V6OPS provides operators, including service providers, enterprises, and
other organizations a venue to share IPv6 operational experience, challenges,
and lessons learned, as well as other work within scope for the WG.
Specifically, V6OPS is a venue to share reports on IPv6-related network
monitoring experiments and applications that perform well in IPv4 networks
but do not perform well in IPv6 networks.

## Objectives

*  Publish Informational or BCP documents that provide IPv6 operational
guidance in specific deployment contexts. This includes:

     + Documents summarizing requirements and defining current practices for
     nodes, applications, and services adopting and operating over IPv6.

     + Documents that demonstrate how IPv6 can be deployed in a specific
     environment (data centers, enterprise networks, WAN, access networks,
     etc.).

     + Documents explaining IPv6's advantages over IPv4 (e.g., features that
     reduce operational complexity and improve reliability).

     + Use cases, transition strategies, and best practices that enable
     IPv6-only operation.

*  Publish Informational documents that identify obstacles to IPv6 deployment
and IPv6 operational issues in general. Each document should include an
operational solution, if one is available. These documents can be used as
input to protocol-developing WGs. This includes:

     + A study that compares the performance of existing IPv4 networks to the
     performance of existing IPv6 networks. When IPv6 networks do not perform
     as well as IPv4 networks and vice versa, identify the root causes if
     possible.

     + Use cases where dual-stack hosts prefer IPv4 or fail to utilize
     available IPv6 connectivity.

* Maintain and specify extensions to NAT64 (RFC 6146), Stateless IP/ICMP
Translation Algorithm (SIIT, RFC 7915), IPv6 Addressing of IPv4/IPv6
Translators (RFC 6052), 464XLAT (RFC 6877), Stateless IP/ICMP Translation for
IPv6 Internet Data Center Environments (SIIT-DC, RFC 7755), and Stateless
Source Address Mapping for ICMPv6 Packets (RFC 6791) (including, updating
those published as Informational to Standards Track and Proposed Standard to
Internet Standard).

## WG Practices

In order to achieve these goals, the WG will work with regional network
operators' groups and other IPv6 proponents. It will also interact with the
HAPPY, SRV6OPS, and 6MAN WGs, exchanging information and being mindful of
each WG's charter.

Occasionally, deployment issues will require protocol enhancements. Protocol
enhancements are the responsibility of the WGs that developed the protocols,
if such WGs are not concluded. However, the V6OPS WG may provide input to
those WGs and cooperate with them in reviewing solutions to IPv6 deployment
problems.

Milestones:

  Oct 2025 - Submit "464XLAT Customer-side Translator (CLAT): Node
  Recommendations" to the IESG for publication

  Nov 2025 - Submit "Framework of Multi-domain IPv6-only Underlay Network and
  IPv4-as-a-Service" to the IESG for publication

  Dec 2025 - Submit Updated IPv6 CPE Requirements (rfc7084-update) to the
  IESG for publication

  Dec 2025 - Submit "IPv6-Mostly Networks: Deployment and Operations
  Considerations" to the IESG for publication

  Dec 2025 - Submit "Using Dummy IPv4 Address and Node Identification
  Extensions for IP/ICMP translators" to the IESG for publication

  Jun 2026 - Submit  "A Recommendation for Filtering Address Records in Stub
  Resolvers" to the IESG for publication

  Dec 2026 - Adopt IPv4 Versus IPv6 Performance

  Dec 2026 - Adopt Deploying IPv6 in the Access Network

  Dec 2026 - Adopt Deploying IPv6 in the Enterprise

  Dec 2026 - Adopt Deploying IPv6 in the Data Center

  Dec 2026 - Adopt Deploying IPv6 in the WAN