Hewlett Packard During the initial deployment of IPv6, hosts in native IPv6 networks will need to maintain connectivity with hosts and/or applications who can only be reached through IPv4. The Dual Stack Transition Mechanism (DSTM) provides a method to assure this connectivity based on the use of IPv4-over-IPv6 tunnels and the temporal allocation of a global IPv4 address to hosts requiring such communication. This document defines the processes and architecture required for this transition mechanism.