Though the free pool of available IPv4 addresses has now been exhausted, that doesn’t mean that every network is now going to be using IPv6.
The need to support both IPv4 and IPv6 is where different migration, dual-stack and tunneling approaches come in. This week networking vendor Brocade (NASDAQ:BRCD), debuted its solution to the problem with an updated ADX 12.3 release for the company’s ADX application delivery controller platform.
NAT64 is a translation mechanism that translates IPv4 to IPv6 and vice-versa. In contrast, tunneling mechanisms are based around overlaying one network on top of the other
“Effectively the NAT64 gateway announces the addresses on the other side of it, so if you have a client that has resolved DNS the destination IP will point to the gateway,” Keith Stewart, director product management for Application Delivery Products at Brocade told InternetNews.com. “The gateway will then translate that to the other side over the alternative protocol.”
As opposed to router based mechanisms for IPv4 to IPv6, Brocade
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s approach is on the application delivery controller, which provides greater control for applications.