Towards an IPv6-only WLCG: More successes in reducing IPv4

The Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid (WLCG) community’s deployment of dual-stack IPv6/IPv4 on its worldwide storage infrastructure has been very successful. Dual-stack is not, however, a viable longterm solution; the HEPiX IPv6 Working Group has focused on studying where and why IPv4 is still being used, and how to flip such traffic to IPv6. The agreed end goal is to turn IPv4 off and run IPv6-only over the wide-area network to simplify both operations and security management. This paper reports our work since the CHEP2023 conference. Firstly, we present our campaign to deploy IPv6 on CPU services and Worker Nodes, with a deadline of end of June 2024. Then, the WLCG Data Challenge (DC24) performed in February 2024 was an excellent opportunity to observe the percentage of data transfers carried by IPv6. We observed the predominance of IPv6 in data transfers during DC24 and were able to understand yet more reasons for the use of IPv4 and areas for remedial action. The paper ends with the working group’s plans for moving WLCG to “IPv6- only”. One aspect of this is the possible automated use of IPv6-only clients configured with a customer-side translator, or CLAT, together with a deployment of NAT64 using what is often known as “IPv6-Mostly”, enabling IPv6-only sites to connect to non-WLCG IPv4-only services.

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Publication Details

Journal
EPJ Web of Conferences
Published
2025-01-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1051/epjconf/202533701260
Primary Topic
IPv6, Mobility, Handover, Networks, Security
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
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article

Towards an IPv6-only WLCG: More successes in reducing IPv4

Nick Buraglio, Edoardo Martelli, F. Prelz, D. P. Kelsey et al.
EPJ Web of Conferences
IPv6, Mobility, Handover, Networks, Security
article

Towards an IPv6-only WLCG: More successes in reducing IPv4

Nick Buraglio, Edoardo Martelli, F. Prelz, D. P. Kelsey, S. P. Mc Kee, Garhan Attebury, Bruno Hoeft, Dimitrios Christidis, Christopher Walker, Tim Chown, M. J. Bly, Carmen Misa Moreira, Tim Skirvin, J. Chudoba, Raja Nandakumar, A. Sciabà, Hiro Ito, Costin Grigoraş, K. Ohrenberg, Duncan Rand, Marian Babik, Phil DeMar, J. Flix
article en

Abstract

The Worldwide Large Hadron Collider Computing Grid (WLCG) community’s deployment of dual-stack IPv6/IPv4 on its worldwide storage infrastructure has been very successful. Dual-stack is not, however, a viable longterm solution; the HEPiX IPv6 Working Group has focused on studying where and why IPv4 is still being used, and how to flip such traffic to IPv6. The agreed end goal is to turn IPv4 off and run IPv6-only over the wide-area network to simplify both operations and security management. This paper reports our work since the CHEP2023 conference. Firstly, we present our campaign to deploy IPv6 on CPU services and Worker Nodes, with a deadline of end of June 2024. Then, the WLCG Data Challenge (DC24) performed in February 2024 was an excellent opportunity to observe the percentage of data transfers carried by IPv6. We observed the predominance of IPv6 in data transfers during DC24 and were able to understand yet more reasons for the use of IPv4 and areas for remedial action. The paper ends with the working group’s plans for moving WLCG to “IPv6- only”. One aspect of this is the possible automated use of IPv6-only clients configured with a customer-side translator, or CLAT, together with a deployment of NAT64 using what is often known as “IPv6-Mostly”, enabling IPv6-only sites to connect to non-WLCG IPv4-only services.

EPJ Web of ConferencesVol. 337
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (DE), University of Nebraska–Lincoln (US), Rutherford Appleton Laboratory (GB), Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (US), Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US), Brookhaven National Laboratory (US), Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ), University of Michigan (US), Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY (DE), FZU ‒ Institute of Physics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (CZ), Energy Sciences Network (US), Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Milano (IT), Centro de Investigaciones Energéticas, Medioambientales y Tecnológicas (ES), Imperial College London (GB), European Organization for Nuclear Research (CH), Jisc (GB)
Openalex Percentile: Top 72%
IPv6, Mobility, Handover, Networks, Security
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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