WISPs: IPv6 is the answer to some of your issues
Many Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISPs), especially newer startups, struggle with nat issues and having enough public Ip addresses to go around. Invariably, you start running into double nat issues pretty quickly. Then you get the dreaded gamer call:
Many times they don’t know why they are even calling. They just know the magic box is saying this is bad. This is related to how many layers of nat between your edge and them. Many times you are natting at the edge, then you are natting at the customer router. If you have multiple customers behind the same nat at the edge this compounds it even more.
So what is the fix? Give the customer public addresses. But IPv4 is hard to get! I didn’t say IPV4 I said public addresses. IPv6 is a public address. When given the choice between v4 and v6 most modern streaming and gaming platforms will prefer v6. Xbox has supported a protocol called Teredo for a long time. You can learn all about Teredo in this PDF. Basically, it is a tunnel in which the Xbox speaks ipv6 over the tunnel. The ISP does not have to support v6, which does away with the above-mentioned nat issues.
Great! I don’t have to worry about IPv6, Microsoft has it taken care of for me. There are two problems with this statement. Problem number one. There are more companies out there than Microsoft. Sony Playstation Online, Apple gaming, and Steam are just a few. Second, you have overhead of tunnels. In the world of who can pull the joystick quicker, milliseconds count. You don’t want them wasted in tunnel overhead. Plus, v6 is beneficial for other service such as Netflix.
Any other service that runs into port issues behind nat can be solved with Ipv6, This can be voip, cameras, and other type services. This is providing the product or service supports v6 addresses.
So what is an ISP to do?
Awhile back I put together a resource guide for ISPs. You can find it at https://blog.j2sw.com/networking/ipv6/ipv6-planning-and-implementation-resources-for-the-xisp/
https://j2sw.com
https://startawisp.info
https://indycolo.net
#packetsdownrange #routethelight