Network Performance Evaluation of 6to4 and Configured Tunnel Transition Mechanisms: An Empirical Test-Bed Analysis

Depleting IPv4 addresses has generated enormous interest in the new version of Internet Protocol, IPv6. It was developed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to completely replace IPv4. However, due to many reasons, migration to the new version of the Internet has been slow. For the interim, various transition mechanisms have been developed. This research examines and empirically evaluates the performance of two such transition mechanisms, namely 6to4 and configured tunnel when implemented on network infrastructure. Performance metrics like throughput, jitter and delay are measured for these transition mechanisms. This research shows that 6to4 transition mechanism gives better network performance than configured tunnel.