Although the pending
exhaustion of the IPv4 address space has been know about for some time, the industry is still in the early phase of broad scale IPv6 adoption. There are suggested steps to take in anticipation of the day offered on VON, including how to make an IPv6 plan. It is important to remember that multicast does not face the same exhaustion problem as IPv4 unicast so all multicast traffic, including IPTV services, can and should remain on IPv4, subscribers’ video set-top boxes should stay on IPv4 domains, and all
VoIP traffic should remain on private IPv4 domains.
“When the day finally arrives you will reluctantly request and receive an allocation of IPv6 addresses that you can use for new subscribers asking for Internet service. As an Internet service provider you have a responsibility to provide IPv6 services to your subscribers, ideally using the same broadband facilities as are currently used for IPv4 connections.”
