V6OPS - IETF 125 Meeting Minutes

Summary

The V6OPS working group met at IETF 125 to discuss the status of active drafts, progress on NAT64 and SIIT specifications, updates to Customer Edge (CE) router requirements, and several individual submissions regarding IPv6 deployment patterns, terminology, and AI agent networking. Despite some audio and connectivity issues during the session, the group moved several documents toward Working Group Last Call (WGLC) and discussed the adoption of new work.

Key Discussion Points

Working Group Status and Note Well

Shi-Ping Xiao opened the session, noting several achievements since IETF 124:

RFC 7757 reclassified to Full Standard.
Two RFCs lifted from Informational to Proposed Standard.
Publication of RFC 9898.
[draft-ietf-v6ops-framework-md-ipv6only-underlay] passed WGLC.
[draft-ietf-v6ops-rfc7915-bis] and [draft-ietf-v6ops-rfc6146-bis] have been adopted.

1. NAT64 Well-Known Prefix for Private IPv4

Presenter: Jen Linkova Slides: 01-Jen_Linkova-draft-ietf-v6ops-nat64-wkp-1918 Draft: [draft-ietf-v6ops-nat64-wkp-1918]

Discussion: The draft proposes relaxing the restriction in RFC 6052 that prevents the Well-Known Prefix (WKP) from representing non-global IPv4 space. This causes issues in "IPv6-mostly" environments where internal IPv4 services use private addresses.
Technical Points: The "must not" restriction is changed to "may." Implementation should include a configuration knob for managed devices (PLAT), while unmanaged devices (CLAT) should ideally translate by default.
Feedback: Med Boucadair noted that clarifying CLAT behavior is important. Nick Buraglio offered to provide testing data regarding inconsistent CLAT behaviors to be included in the draft.

2. Updates to NAT64 and SIIT (bis)

Presenter: Jordi Palet Slides: 02-1 Jordi Palet - rfc6146-bis / 02-2 Jordi Palet - rfc7915-bis Drafts: [draft-ietf-v6ops-rfc6146-bis], [draft-ietf-v6ops-rfc7915-bis]

rfc6146-bis: Resolves minor errata and updates references. No interoperability changes.
rfc7915-bis: Jordi noted that this draft must wait for the ICMP extension draft (draft-ietf-6man-icmp-limits) to progress to ensure references are updated correctly.
Feedback: Med Boucadair recommended waiting for the final text of Jen Linkova’s ICMP work before finalizing the SIIT-bis revision to avoid interoperability gaps.

3. Basic Requirements for IPv6 Customer Edge Routers

Presenter: Tim Winters Slides: 03 Tim Winters - Basic Requirements for IPv6 Customer Edge Routers Draft: [draft-ietf-v6ops-rfc7084bis]

Updates: Added requirement that M/O flag changes should not stop existing stateful configurations. Included support for DoH/DoT as a "SHOULD." LPD requirements from RFC 9818 have been absorbed.
Discussion: Lorenzo Colitti raised concerns about the "Slack Renum" section, noting that keeping old PIOs in RAs until expiration can bloat packets and break hardware filtering on mobile devices. Lorenzo also suggested a minimum non-zero lifetime of 180 seconds. Tim Winters agreed to review these points for version -06.

4. Measurement of IPv6 Interface Identifier (IID) Patterns

Presenter: Zhang Wei Slides: 04 Zhang Wei - Measurement and Analysis of IPv6 Interface Identifier Patterns in the Real World

Findings: EUI-64 usage is declining for clients (proving RFC 8981 success), but 18% of CPE devices still use EUI-64. This creates a privacy risk as the CPE ID acts as a "super-cookie" for the entire home network even if prefix rotation is used.
Discussion: Lorenzo Colitti questioned the specific threat model regarding sniffing CPE addresses. The authors clarified that the fixed ID allows tracking of the network's identity over time.

5. IPv6 Prefix Assignment and Terminology

Presenter: Jordi Palet Slides: 05-1 Jordi Palet - IPv6 Prefix Assignment to end-users / 05-02 Jordi Palet - IPv6-only Terminology Definition

Prefix Assignment: Focuses on P2P link sizes, numbering, and prefix persistence. Eric Vyncke suggested a title change to be more specific.
Terminology: The draft now uses "Scope" instead of "Context" to define where IPv6-only or dual-stack applies. Brian Carpenter suggested clarifying that applications may still see dual-stack APIs even if the network scope is IPv6-only.

6. Gradual IPv6-only Deployment in 5G

Presenter: Chenhao Ma Slides: 07 Chenhao Ma - Considerations of Gradual IPv6-only Deployment in 5G Mobile Networks

Discussion: Focuses on using APN isolation for 464XLAT deployment. Med Boucadair and Jordi Palet questioned what is specific to 5G versus 4G and suggested that managing multiple APNs adds unnecessary operational complexity. The authors argued that roaming and specific hardware issues (e.g., Apple's CLAT support in certain regions) make this relevant.

7. IPv6 for the Internet of AI Agents (IOA)

Presenter: Jiaming Ye Slides: 08 Jiaming Ye 08-slide-draft-yc-ipv6-for-ioa

Content: Proposes that AI agents require the massive address space and end-to-end connectivity of IPv6.
Feedback: Jen Linkova questioned the necessity of including SRv6 in such a broad document. Eric Vyncke challenged the assertion that NAT is a security feature, reminding the group that security is provided by firewalls, not translation.

Decisions and Action Items

[draft-ietf-v6ops-nat64-wkp-1918]: Author to update text based on Nick Buraglio’s data and Med Boucadair’s comments. Likely ready for WGLC after the next revision.
[draft-ietf-v6ops-rfc6146-bis]: Chairs to initiate WGLC.
[draft-ietf-v6ops-rfc7084bis]: Tim Winters to publish version -06 addressing M/O flag logic and RA packet size concerns raised by Lorenzo Colitti.
[draft-palet-v6ops-p2p-links]: Call for adoption will be initiated on the mailing list (noting the suggested title change).

Next Steps

Jordi Palet to update SIIT-bis once the related 6man ICMP draft progresses.
Chenhao Ma to coordinate with Med Boucadair regarding the 5G deployment draft to clarify its specific value compared to existing 4G/3GPP practices.
Jiaming Ye to take comments on the AI Agent draft to the mailing list for further scoping.

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