IPv6 Operations                                             J. Livingood
Internet-Draft                                                   Comcast
Intended status: Informational                         February 27, 2012
Expires: August 30, 2012


            Considerations for Transitioning Content to IPv6
         draft-ietf-v6ops-v6-aaaa-whitelisting-implications-11

Abstract

   This document describes considerations for the transition of end user
   content on the Internet to IPv6.  While this is tailored to address
   end user content, which is typically web-based, many aspects of this
   document may be more broadly applicable to the transition to IPv6 of
   other applications and services.  This document explores the
   challenges involved in the transition to IPv6, potential migration
   tactics, possible migration phases, and other considerations.  The
   audience for this document is the Internet community generally,
   particularly IPv6 implementers.

Status of this Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.  The list of current Internet-
   Drafts is at http://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any
   time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on August 30, 2012.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2012 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect



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   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.


Table of Contents

   1.  Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  4
   2.  Challenges When Transitioning Content to IPv6  . . . . . . . .  4
     2.1.  IPv6-Related Impairment  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.2.  Operational Maturity Concerns  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
     2.3.  Volume-Based Concerns  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  5
   3.  IPv6 Adoption Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
   4.  Potential Migration Tactics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  6
     4.1.  Solve Current End User IPv6 Impairments  . . . . . . . . .  7
     4.2.  Use IPv6-Specicic Names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  7
     4.3.  Implement DNS Resolver Whitelisting  . . . . . . . . . . .  8
       4.3.1.  How DNS Resolver Whitelisting Works  . . . . . . . . . 10
       4.3.2.  Similarities to Content Delivery Networks and
               Global Server Load Balancing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       4.3.3.  Similarities to DNS Load Balancing . . . . . . . . . . 15
       4.3.4.  Similarities to Split DNS  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
       4.3.5.  Related Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
     4.4.  Implement DNS Blacklisting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
     4.5.  Transition Directly to Native Dual Stack . . . . . . . . . 18
   5.  Potential Implementation Phases  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     5.1.  No Access to IPv6 Content  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     5.2.  Using IPv6-Specific Names  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     5.3.  Deploying DNS Resolver Whitelisting Using Manual
           Processes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     5.4.  Deploying DNS Resolver Whitelisting Using Automated
           Processes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
     5.5.  Turning Off DNS Resolver Whitelisting  . . . . . . . . . . 19
     5.6.  Deploying DNS Blacklisting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
     5.7.  Fully Dual-Stack Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
   6.  Other Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
     6.1.  Security Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
     6.2.  Privacy Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
     6.3.  Considerations with Poor IPv4 and Good IPv6 Transport  . . 22
     6.4.  IANA Considerations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
   7.  Contributors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
   8.  Acknowledgements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
   9.  References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     9.1.  Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
     9.2.  Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
   Appendix A.  Document Change Log . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
   Appendix B.  Open Issues . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31



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   Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31


















































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1.  Introduction

   This document describes considerations for the transition of end user
   content on the Internet to IPv6.  While this is tailored to address
   end user content, which is typically web-based, many aspects of this
   document may be more broadly applicable to the transition to IPv6 of
   other applications and services.  The issues explored herein will be
   of particular interest to major web content sites (sometimes
   described hereinafter as "high-service-level domains"), which have
   specific and unique concerns relating to maintaining a high-quality
   user experience for all of their users during their transition to
   IPv6.  This document explores the challenges involved in the
   transition to IPv6, potential migration tactics, possible migration
   phases, and other considerations.  Some sections of this document
   also include information about the potential implications of various
   migration tactics or phased approaches to the transition to IPv6.


2.  Challenges When Transitioning Content to IPv6

   The goal in transitioning content to IPv6 is to make that content
   natively dual-stack enabled, which provides native access to all end
   users via both IPv4 and IPv6.  However, there are technical and
   operational challenges in being able to transition smoothly for all
   end users, which has led to the development of a variety of migration
   tactics.  A first step in understanding various migration tactics is
   to first outline the challenges involved in moving content to IPv6.

   Implementers of these various migration tactics are attempting to
   protect users of their services from having a negative experience
   (poor performance) when they receive DNS responses containing AAAA
   resource records or when attempting to use IPv6 transport.  There are
   two main concerns which pertain to this practice; one of which is
   IPv6-related impairment and the other which is the maturity or
   stability of IPv6 transport (and associated network operations) for
   high-service-level domains.  Both can negatively affect the
   experience of end users.

   Not all domains may face the same challenges in transitioning content
   to IPv6, since the user base of each domain, traffic sources, traffic
   volumes, and other factors obviously will vary between domains.  As a
   result, while some domains have used an IPv6 migration tactic, others
   have run brief IPv6 experiments and then decided to simply turn on
   IPv6 for the domain without further delay and without using any
   specialized IPv6 migration tactics [Heise].  Each domain should
   therefore consider its specific situation when formulating a plan to
   move to IPv6; there is not one approach that will work for every
   domain.



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2.1.  IPv6-Related Impairment

   Some implementers have observed that when they added AAAA resource
   records to their authoritative DNS servers in order to support IPv6
   access to their content that a small fraction of end users had slow
   or otherwise impaired access to a given web site with both AAAA and A
   resource records.  The fraction of users with such impaired access
   has been estimated to be as high as 0.078% of total Internet users
   [IETF-77-DNSOP] [NW-Article-DNSOP] [IPv6-Growth] [IPv6-Brokenness].

   While it is outside the scope of this document to explore the various
   reasons why a particular user's system (host) may have impaired IPv6
   access, and the potential solutions [I-D.ietf-v6ops-happy-eyeballs]
   [RFC6343], for the users who experience this impairment it has a very
   real performance impact.  It would impact access to all or most dual
   stack services to which the user attempts to connect.  This negative
   end user experience can range from somewhat slower than usual access
   (as compared to native IPv4-based access), to extremely slow access,
   to no access to the domain's resources whatsoever.  In essence,
   whether the end user even has an IPv6 address or not, merely by
   receiving a AAAA record response the user either cannot access a
   Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN, representing a service or resource
   sought) or it is so slow that the user gives up and assumes the
   destination is unreachable.

2.2.  Operational Maturity Concerns

   Some implementers have discovered that network operations, operations
   support and business support systems, and other operational processes
   and procedures are less mature for IPv6 as compared to IPv4, since
   IPv6 has not heretofore been pervasively deployed.  This operational
   immaturity may be observed not just within the network of a given
   domain but also in any directly or indirectly interconnected
   networks.  As a result, many domains consider it prudent to undertake
   any network changes which will cause traffic to shift to IPv6
   gradually in order to provide time and experience for IPv6 operations
   and network practices mature.

2.3.  Volume-Based Concerns

   While Section 2.2 pertains to risks due to immaturity in operations,
   a related concern is that some technical issues may not become
   apparent until some moderate to high volume of traffic is sent via
   IPv6 to and from a domain.  As above, this may be the case not just
   within the network of that domain but also for any directly or
   indirectly interconnected networks.  Furthermore, compared to domains
   with small to moderate traffic volumes, whether by the count of end
   users or count of bytes transferred, high-traffic domains receive



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   such a level of usage that it is prudent to undertake any network
   changes gradually and in a manner which minimizes the risk of
   disruption.  One can imagine that for one of the top ten sites
   globally, for example, the idea of suddenly turning on a significant
   amount of IPv6 traffic is quite daunting and would carry a relatively
   high risk of network and/or other disruptions.


3.  IPv6 Adoption Implications

   It is important that the challenges in transitioning content to IPv6
   noted in Section 2 are addressed, especially for high-service-level
   domains.  Some high-service-level domains may find the prospect of
   transitioning to IPv6 extremely daunting without having some ability
   to address these challenges and to incrementally control their
   transition to IPv6.  Lacking such controls, some domains may choose
   to substantially delay their transition to IPv6.  A substantial delay
   in content moving to IPv6 could certainly mean there are somewhat
   fewer motivating factors for network operators to deploy IPv6 to end
   user hosts (though they have many significant motivating factors that
   are largely independent of content).  At the same time, unless
   network operators transition to IPv6, there are of course fewer
   motivations for domain owners to transition content to IPv6.  Without
   progress in each part of the Internet ecosystem, networks and/or
   content sites may delay, postpone, or cease adoption of IPv6, or to
   actively seek alternatives to it.  Such alternatives may include the
   use of multi-layer or large scale network address translation (NAT),
   which is not preferred relative to native dual stack.

   Obviously, transitioning content to IPv6 is important to IPv6
   adoption overall.  While challenges do exist, such a transition is
   not an impossible task for a domain to undertake.  A range of
   potential migration tactics, as noted below in Section 4, can help
   meet these challenges and enable a domain to successfully transition
   content and other services to IPv6.


4.  Potential Migration Tactics

   Domains have a wide range of potential tactics at their disposal that
   may be used to facilitate the migration to IPv6.  This section
   includes many of the key tactics that could be used by a domain but
   it is by no means an exhaustive or exclusive list.  Only a specific
   domain can judge whether or not a given (or any) migration tactic
   applies to their domain and meets their needs.  A domain may also
   decide to pursue several of these tactics in parallel.  Thus, the
   usefulness of each tactic and the associated pros and cons will vary
   from domain to domain.



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4.1.  Solve Current End User IPv6 Impairments

   Domains can endeavor to fix the underlying technical problems
   experienced by their end users during the transition to IPv6, as
   noted in Section 2.1.  One challenge with this option is that a
   domain may have little or no control over the network connectivity,
   operating system, client software (such as a web browser), and/or
   other capabilities of the end users of that domain.  In most cases a
   domain is only in a position to influence and guide their end users.
   While this is not the same sort of direct control which may exist in
   an enterprise network for example, major domains are likely to be
   trusted by their end users and may therefore be able to influence and
   guide these users in solving any IPv6-related impairments.

   Another challenge is that end user impairments are something that one
   domain on their own cannot solve.  This means that domains may find
   it more effective to coordinate with many others in the Internet
   community to solve what is really a collective problem that affects
   the entire Internet.  Of course, it can sometimes be difficult to
   motivate members of the Internet community to work collectively
   towards such a goal, sharing the labor, time, and costs related to
   such an effort.  However, World IPv6 Day [W6D] shows that such
   community efforts are possible and despite any potential challenges,
   the Internet community continues to work together in order to solve
   end user IPv6 impairments.

   One potential tactic may be to identify which users have such
   impairments and then to communicate this information to affected
   users.  Such end user communication is likely to be most helpful if
   the end user is not only alerted to a potential problem but is given
   careful and detailed advice on how to resolve this on their own, or
   is guided to where they can seek help in doing so.  Another potential
   tactic is for a domain to collect, track over time, and periodically
   share with the Internet community the rate of impairment observed for
   a domain.  In any such end user IPv6-related analysis and
   communication, Section 6.2 is worth taking into account.

   However, while these tactics can help reduce IPv6-related impairments
   Section 2.1, they do not address either operational maturity concerns
   noted in Section 2.2 or volume-based concerns noted in Section 2.3,
   which should be considered and addressed separately.

4.2.  Use IPv6-Specicic Names

   Another potential migration tactic is for a domain to gain experience
   using a special Fully-Qualified Domain Name (FQDN).  This has become
   typical for domains beginning the transition to IPv6, whereby an
   address-family-specific name such as ipv6.example.com or



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   www.ipv6.example.com is used.  An end user would have to know to use
   this special IPv6-specific name; it is not the same name used for
   regular traffic.

   This special IPv6-specific name directs traffic to a host or hosts
   which have been enabled for native IPv6 access.  In some cases this
   name may point to hosts which are separate from those used for IPv4
   traffic (via www.example.com), while in other cases it may point to
   the same hosts used for IPv4 traffic.  A subsequent phase, if
   separate hosts are used to support special IPv6-specific names, is to
   move to the same hosts used for regular traffic in order to utilize
   and exercise production infrastructure more fully.  Regardless of
   whether or not dedicated hosts are used, the use of the special name
   is a way to incrementally control traffic as a tool for a domain to
   gain IPv6 experience and increase IPv6 use on a relatively controlled
   basis.  Any lessons learned can then inform plans for a full
   transition to IPv6.  This also provides an opportunity for a domain
   to develop any necessary training for staff, to develop IPv6-related
   testing procedures for their production network and lab, to deploy
   IPv6 functionality into their production network, and to develop and
   deploy IPv6-related network and service monitors.  It is also an
   opportunity to add a relatively small amount of IPv6 traffic to
   ensure that network gear, network interconnects, and IPv6 routing in
   general is working as expected.

   While using a special IPv6-specific name is a good initial step to
   functionally test and prepare a domain for IPv6, including developing
   and maturing IPv6 operations, as noted in Section 2.2, the utility of
   the tactic is limited since users must know the IPv6-specific name,
   the traffic volume will be low, and the traffic is unlikely to be
   representative of the general population of end users (they are
   likely to be self-selecting early adopters and more technically
   advanced than average), among other reasons.  As a result, any
   concerns and risks related to traffic volume as noted Section 2.3
   should still be considered and addressed separately.

4.3.  Implement DNS Resolver Whitelisting

   Another potential tactic, especially when a high-service-level domain
   is ready to move beyond an IPv6-specific name, as described in
   Section 4.2, is to selectively return AAAA resource records (RRs),
   which contain IPv6 addresses.  This selective response of DNS records
   is performed by an authoritative DNS servers for a domain in response
   to DNS queries sent by DNS recursive resolvers [RFC1035].  This is
   commonly referred to in the Internet community as "DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting", and will be referred to as such hereafter, though in
   essence it is simply a tactic enabling the selective return of DNS
   records based upon various technical factors.  An end user is seeking



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   a resource by name, and this selective response mechanism enables
   what is perceived to be the most reliable and best performing IP
   address family to be used (IPv4 or IPv6).  It shares similarities
   with Content Delivery Networks, Global Server Load Balancing, DNS
   Load Balancing, and Split DNS, as described below in Section 4.3.2,
   Section 4.3.3, Section 4.3.4.  A few high-service-level domains have
   either implemented DNS Resolver Whitelisting (one of many migration
   tactics they have used or are using) or are considering doing so
   [NW-Article-DNS-WL] [WL-Ops].

   This is a migration tactic used by domains as a method for
   incrementally transitioning inbound traffic to a domain to IPv6.  If
   an incremental tactic like this is not used, a domain might return
   AAAA resource records to any relevant DNS query, meaning the domain
   could go quickly from no IPv6 traffic to potentially a significant
   amount as soon as the AAAA resource records are published.  When DNS
   Resolver Whitelisting is implemented, a domain's authoritative DNS
   will selectively return a AAAA resource record to DNS recursive
   resolvers on a whitelist maintained by the domain, while returning no
   AAAA resource records to DNS recursive resolvers which are not on
   that whitelist.  This tactic will not have a direct impact on
   reducing IPv6-related impairments Section 2.1, though it can help a
   domain address operational maturity concerns Section 2.2 and concerns
   and risks related to traffic volume Section 2.3.  While DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting does not solve IPv6-related impairments, it can help a
   domain to avoid users that have them.  As a result, the tactic
   removes their impact in all but the few networks that are
   whitelisted.  DNS Resolver Whitelisting also allows a website
   operator to protect non-IPv6 networks (i.e. networks that do not
   support IPv6 and/or do not have plans to do so in the future) from
   IPv6-related impairments in their networks.  Finally, domains using
   this tactic should understand that the onus is on them to ensure that
   the servers being whitelisted represent a network that has proven to
   their satisfaction that they are IPv6-ready and this will not create
   a poor end user experience for users of the whitelisted server.

   There are of course challenges and concerns relating to DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting.  Some of the concerns with a whitelist of DNS recursive
   resolvers may be held by parties other than the implementing domain,
   such as network operators or end users that may not have had their
   DNS recursive resolvers added to a whitelist.  Additionally, the IP
   address of a DNS recursive resolver is not a precise indicator of the
   IPv6 preparedness, or lack of IPv6-related impairment, of end user
   hosts which query (use) a particular DNS recursive resolver.  While
   the IP addresses of DNS recursive resolvers on networks known to have
   deployed IPv6 may be an imperfect proxy for judging IPv6
   preparedness, or lack of IPv6-related impairment, it is one of the
   better available methods at the current time.  For example,



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   implementers have found that it is possible to measure the level of
   IPv6 preparedness of the end users behind any given DNS recursive
   resolver by conducting ongoing measurement of the IPv6 preparedness
   of end users querying for one-time-use hostnames and then correlating
   the domain's authoritative DNS server logs with their web server
   logs.  This can help implementers form a good picture of which DNS
   recursive resolvers have working IPv6 users behind them and which do
   not, what the latency impact of turning on IPv6 for any given DNS
   recursive resolver is, etc.  In addition, given the current state of
   global IPv6 deployment, this migration tactic allows content
   providers to selectively expose the availability of their IPv6
   services.  While opinions in the Internet community concerning DNS
   Resolver Whitelisting are understandably quite varied, there is clear
   consensus that DNS Resolver Whitelisting can be a useful tactic for
   use during the transition of a domain to IPv6.  In particular, some
   high-service-level domains view DNS Resolver Whitelisting as one of
   the few practical and low-risk approaches enabling them to transition
   to IPv6, without which their transition may not take place for some
   time.  However, there is also consensus that this practice is
   workable on a manual basis (see below) only in the short-term and
   that it will not scale over the long-term.  Thus, some domains may
   find DNS Resolver Whitelisting a beneficial temporary tactic in their
   transition to IPv6.

   At the current time, generally speaking, a domain that implements DNS
   Resolver Whitelisting does so manually.  This means that a domain
   manually maintains a list of networks that are permitted to receive
   IPv6 records (via their DNS resolver IP addresses) and that these
   networks typically submit applications, or follow some other process
   established by the domain, in order to be added to the DNS Whitelist.
   However, implementers foresee that a subsequent phase of DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting is likely to emerge in the future, possibly in the near
   future.  In this new phase a domain would return IPv6 and/or IPv4
   records dynamically based on automatically detected technical
   capabilities, location, or other factors.  It would then function
   much like (or indeed as part of) global server load balancing, a
   common practice already in use today, as described in Section 4.3.2.
   Furthermore, in this future phase, networks would be added to and
   removed from a DNS Whitelist automatically, and possibly on a near-
   real-time basis.  This means, crucially, that networks would no
   longer need to apply to be added to a whitelist, which may alleviate
   many of the key concerns that network operators may have with this
   tactic when it is implemented on a manual basis.

4.3.1.  How DNS Resolver Whitelisting Works

   Using a "whitelist" in a generic sense means that no traffic (or
   traffic of a certain type) is permitted to the destination host



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   unless the originating host's IP address is contained in the
   whitelist.  In contrast, using a "blacklist" means that all traffic
   is permitted to the destination host unless the originating host's IP
   address is contained in the blacklist.  In the case of DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting, the resource that an end user seeks is a name, not an
   IP address or IP address family.  Thus, an end user is seeking a name
   such as www.example.com, without regard to the underlying IP address
   family (IPv4 or IPv6) which may be used to access that resource.

   DNS Resolver Whitelisting is implemented in authoritative DNS
   servers, not in DNS recursive resolvers.  These authoritative DNS
   servers selectively return AAAA resource records using the IP address
   of the DNS recursive resolver that has sent it a query.  Thus, for a
   given operator of a website, such as www.example.com, the domain
   operator implements whitelisting on the authoritative DNS servers for
   the domain example.com.  The whitelist is populated with the IPv4
   and/or IPv6 addresses or prefix ranges of DNS recursive resolvers on
   the Internet, which have been authorized to receive AAAA resource
   record responses.  These DNS recursive resolvers are operated by
   third parties, such as Internet Service Providers (ISPs),
   universities, governments, businesses, and individual end users.  If
   a DNS recursive resolver is not matched in the whitelist, then AAAA
   resource records WILL NOT be sent in response to a query for a
   hostname in the example.com domain (and an A record would be sent).
   However, if a DNS recursive resolver is matched in the whitelist,
   then AAAA resource records WILL be sent.  As a result, while Section
   2.2 of [RFC4213] notes that a stub resolver can make a choice between
   whether to use a AAAA record or A record response, with DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting the authoritative DNS server can also decide whether to
   return a AAAA record, an A record, or both record types.

   When implemented on a manual basis, DNS Resolver Whitelisting
   generally means that a very small fraction of the DNS recursive
   resolvers on the Internet (those in the whitelist) will receive AAAA
   responses.  The large majority of DNS recursive resolvers on the
   Internet will therefore receive only A resource records containing
   IPv4 addresses.  When implemented manually, domains may find the
   practice imposes some incremental operational burdens insofar as it
   can consume staff time to maintain a whitelist (such as additions and
   deletions to the list), respond to and review applications to be
   added to a whitelist, maintain good performance levels on
   authoritative DNS servers as the whitelist grows, create new network
   monitors to check the health of a whitelist function, perform new
   types of troubleshooting related to whitelisting, etc.  In addition,
   manually-based whitelisting imposes some incremental burdens on
   operators of DNS recursive resolvers (such as network operators),
   since they will need to apply to be whitelisted with any implementing
   domains, and will subsequently need processes and systems to track



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   the status of whitelisting applications, respond to requests for
   additional information pertaining to these applications, and track
   any de-whitelisting actions.

   When implemented on an automated basis in the future, DNS recursive
   resolvers listed in the whitelist could expand and contract
   dynamically, and possibly in near-real-time, based on a wide range of
   factors.  As a result, it is likely that the number of DNS recursive
   resolvers on the whitelist will be substantially larger than when
   such a list is maintained manually, and it is likely the the
   whitelist will grow at a rapid rate.  This automation can eliminate
   most of the significant incremental operational burdens on both
   implementing domains as well as operators of DNS recursive resolvers,
   which is clearly a factor that is motivating implementers to work to
   automate this function.

   Section 4.3.1.1 and Figure 1 have more details on DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting generally.  In addition, the potential deployment models
   of DNS Resolver Whitelisting (manual and automated) are described in
   Section 5.  It is also important to note that DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting also works independently of whether an authoritative DNS
   server, DNS recursive resolver, or end user host uses IPv4 transport,
   IPv6, or both.  So, for example, whitelisting may not result in the
   return of AAAA responses even in those cases where the DNS recursive
   resolver has queried the authoritative server over IPv6 transport.
   This may also be the case in some situations when the end user host's
   original query to its DNS recursive resolver was over IPv6 transport,
   if that DNS recursive resolver is not on a given whitelist.  One
   important reason for this is that even though the DNS recursive
   resolver may have no IPv6-related impairments, this is not a reliable
   predictor of whether the same is true of the end user host.  This
   also means that a DNS whitelist can contain both IPv4 and IPv6
   addresses.

4.3.1.1.  Description of the Operation of DNS Resolver Whitelisting

   Specific implementations will vary from domain to domain, based on a
   range of factors such as the technical capabilities of a given
   domain.  As such, any examples listed herein should be considered
   general examples and are not intended to be exhaustive.

   The system logic of DNS Resolver Whitelisting is as follows:

   1.  The authoritative DNS server for example.com receives DNS queries
       for the A (IPv4) and/or AAAA (IPv6) address resource records for
       the Fully Qualified Domain Name (FQDN) www.example.com, for which
       AAAA (IPv6) resource records exist.




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   2.  The authoritative DNS server checks the IP address (IPv4, IPv6,
       or both) of the DNS recursive resolver sending the AAAA (IPv6)
       query against the whitelist that is the DNS Whitelist.

   3.  If the DNS recursive resolver's IP address IS matched in the
       whitelist, then the response to that specific DNS recursive
       resolver can contain AAAA (IPv6) address resource records.

   4.  If the DNS recursive resolver's IP address IS NOT matched in the
       whitelist, then the response to that specific DNS recursive
       resolver cannot contain AAAA (IPv6) address resource records.  In
       this case, the server will likely return a response with the
       response code (RCODE) being set to 0 (No Error) with an empty
       answer section for the AAAA record query.





































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 +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
 | Caching Server 1 - IS NOT ON the DNS Whitelist                     |
 | Caching Server 2 - IS ON the DNS Whitelist                         |
 | Note: Transport between each host can be IPv4 or IPv6.             |
 +--------------------------------------------------------------------+
 +----------+          +---------------+         +---------------+
 |   Stub   |          |  DNS Caching  |         |      DNS      |
 | Resolver |          |   Server 1    |         |     Server    |
 +----------+          +---------------+         +---------------+
    | DNS Query:            |                         |
    | example.com A, AAAA   |                         |
    |---------------------->|                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       | DNS Query:              |
    |                       | example.com A, AAAA     |
    |                       |------------------------>|
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | NOT on Whitelist
    |                       |           DNS Response: |
    |                       |           example.com A |
    |                       |<------------------------|
    |                       |                         |
    |         DNS Response: |                         |
    |         example.com A |                         |
    |<----------------------|                         |

 +----------+          +---------------+         +---------------+
 |   Stub   |          |  DNS Caching  |         |      DNS      |
 | Resolver |          |   Server 2    |         |     Server    |
 +----------+          +---------------+         +---------------+
    | DNS Query:            |                         |
    | example.com A, AAAA   |                         |
    |---------------------->|                         |
    |                       |                         |
    |                       | DNS Query:              |
    |                       | example.com A, AAAA     |
    |                       |------------------------>|
    |                       |                         |
    |                       |                         | IS on Whitelist
    |                       |           DNS Response: |
    |                       |     example.com A, AAAA |
    |                       |<------------------------|
    |                       |                         |
    |         DNS Response: |                         |
    |   example.com A, AAAA |                         |
    |<----------------------|                         |

                Figure 1: DNS Resolver Whitelisting Diagram



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4.3.2.  Similarities to Content Delivery Networks and Global Server Load
        Balancing

   DNS Resolver Whitelisting is functionally similar to Content Delivery
   Networks (CDNs) and Global Server Load Balancing (GSLB).  When using
   a CDN or GSLB, a geographically-aware authoritative DNS server
   function is usually part of that overall system.  As a result, the
   use of a CDN or GSLB with an authoritative DNS server function
   enables the IP address resource records returned to a resolver in
   response to a query to vary based on the estimated geographic
   location of the resolver [Wild-Resolvers] or a range of other
   technical factors.  This CDN or GSLB DNS function is performed in
   order to attempt to direct hosts to connect to the nearest hosts (as
   measured in round trip time), to the host that has the best
   connectivity to an end user, to route around failures, to avoid sites
   where maintenance work has taken down hosts, and/or to the host that
   will otherwise provide the best service experience for an end user at
   a given point in time.  As a result, one can see a direct similarity
   to DNS Resolver Whitelisting insofar as different IP address resource
   records are selectively returned to resolvers based on the IP address
   of each resolver and/or other imputed factors related to that IP
   address.

4.3.3.  Similarities to DNS Load Balancing

   DNS Resolver Whitelisting has some similarities to DNS load
   balancing.  There are of course many ways that DNS load balancing can
   be performed.  In one example, multiple IP address resource records
   (A and/or AAAA) can be added to the DNS for a given FQDN.  This
   approach is referred to as DNS round robin [RFC1794].  DNS round
   robin may also be employed where SRV resource records are used
   [RFC2782].  In another example, one or more of the IP address
   resource records in the DNS will direct traffic to a load balancer.
   That load balancer, in turn, may be application-aware, and pass the
   traffic on to one or more hosts connected to the load balancer which
   have different IP addresses.  In cases where private IPv4 addresses
   are used [RFC1918], as well as when public IP addresses are used,
   those end hosts may not necessarily be directly reachable without
   passing through the load balancer first.  So, similar to DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting, a load balancer will control what server host an end
   user's host communicates with when using a FQDN.

4.3.4.  Similarities to Split DNS

   DNS Resolver Whitelisting has some similarities to so-called split
   DNS, briefly described in Section 3.8 of [RFC2775].  When split DNS
   is used, the authoritative DNS server selectively returns different
   responses depending upon what host has sent the query.  While



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   [RFC2775] notes the typical use of split DNS is to provide one answer
   to hosts on an Intranet (internal network) and a different answer to
   hosts on the Internet (external or public network), the basic idea is
   that different answers are provided to hosts on different networks.
   This is similar to the way that DNS Resolver Whitelisting works,
   whereby hosts on different networks which use different DNS recursive
   resolvers, receive different answers if one DNS recursive resolver is
   on the whitelist and the other is not.  However, Internet
   transparency and Internet fragmentation concerns regarding split DNS
   are detailed in Section 2.1 of [RFC2956] and Section 2.7 notes
   concerns regarding split DNS and that it "makes the use of Fully
   Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) as endpoint identifiers more complex".
   Section 3.5 of [RFC2956] further recommends that maintaining a stable
   approach to DNS operations is key during transitions, such as the one
   to IPv6 that is underway now, stating that "Operational stability of
   DNS is paramount, especially during a transition of the network
   layer, and both IPv6 and some network address translation techniques
   place a heavier burden on DNS."

4.3.5.  Related Considerations

   While techniques such as GLSB and DNS load balancing, which share
   much in common with DNS Resolver Whitelisting and are widespread,
   some in the community have raised a range of concerns about the
   practice.  Some concerns are specific DNS Resolver Whitelisting
   [WL-Concerns].  Other concerns are not as specific and pertain to the
   general practice of implementing content location or other network
   policy controls in the "middle" of the network in a so-called
   "middlebox" function.  Whether such DNS-related functions are really
   part of a middlebox is debatable.  Nevertheless, implementers should
   at least be aware of some of the risks of middleboxes, as noted in
   [RFC3724].  A related document, [RFC1958] explains that the state,
   policies, and other functions needed in the middle of the network
   should be minimized as a design goal.  In addition, Section 2.16 of
   [RFC3234] makes specific statements concerning modified DNS servers.
   [RFC3234] also outlines more general concerns in Section 1.2 about
   the introduction of new failure modes when configuration is no longer
   limited to two ends of a session, so that diagnosis of failures and
   misconfigurations could become more complex.  Two additional sources
   worth considering are [Tussle] and [Rethinking], in which the authors
   note concerns regarding the introduction of new control points (such
   as in middleboxes), including in the DNS.

   However, some state, policies, and other functions have always been
   necessary to enable effective, reliable, and high-quality end-to-end
   communications on the Internet.  In addition, techniques such as
   Global Server Load Balancing, Content Delivery Networking, DNS Load
   Balancing and Split DNS are not only widely deployed but are almost



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   uniformly viewed as essential to the functioning of the Internet and
   highly beneficial to the quality of the end user experience on the
   Internet.  These techniques have had and continue to have a
   beneficial effect on the experience of a wide range of Internet
   applications and protocols.  So while there are valid concerns about
   implementing policy controls in the "middle" of the network, or
   anywhere away from edge hosts, the definition of what constitutes the
   middle and edge of the network is debatable in this case.  This is
   particularly so given that GSLBs and CDNs facilitate connections from
   end host and the optimal content hosts, and could therefore be
   considered a modest and in many cases essential network policy
   extension of a network's edge, especially in the case of high-
   service-level domains.

   There may be additional implications for end users that have
   configured their hosts to use a third party as their DNS recursive
   resolver, rather than the one(s) provided by their network operator.
   In such cases, it will be more challenging for a domain using
   whitelisting to determine the level of IPv6-related impairment when
   such third-party DNS recursive resolvers are used, given the wide
   variety of end user access networks which may be used and that this
   mix may change in unpredictable ways over time.

4.4.  Implement DNS Blacklisting

   With DNS Resolver Whitelisting, DNS recursive resolvers can receive
   AAAA resource records only if they are on the whitelist.  DNS
   Blacklisting is by contrast the the opposite of that, whereby all DNS
   recursive resolvers can receive AAAA resource records unless they are
   on the blacklist.  Some implementers of DNS Resolver Whitelisting may
   choose to subsequently transition to DNS Blacklisting.  It is unclear
   when and if it may be appropriate for a domain to change from
   whitelisting to blacklisting.  Nor is it clear how implementers will
   judge the network conditions to have changed sufficiently to justify
   disabling such controls.

   When a domain uses blacklisting, they are enabling all DNS recursive
   resolvers to receive AAAA record responses except for what is
   presumed to be a relatively small number that are on the blacklist.
   Over time it is likely that the blacklist will become smaller as the
   networks associated with the blacklisted DNS recursive resolvers are
   able to meaningfully reduce IPv6-related impairments to some
   acceptable level, though it is possible that some networks may never
   achieve that.  DNS Blacklisting is also likely less labor intensive
   for a domain than performing DNS Resolver Whitelisting on a manual
   basis.  This is simply because the domain would presumably be focused
   on a smaller number of DNS recursive resolvers with well known IPv6-
   related problems.



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   It is also worth noting that the email industry has a long experience
   with blacklists and, very generally speaking, blacklists tend to be
   effective and well received when it is easy to discover if an IP
   address is on a blacklist, if there is a transparent and easily
   understood process for requesting removal from a blacklist, and if
   the decision-making criteria for placing a server on a blacklist is
   transparently disclosed and perceived as fair.  However, in contrast
   to an email blacklist where a blacklisted host cannot send email to a
   domain at all, with DNS Resolver Whitelisting communications will
   still occur over IPv4 transport.

4.5.  Transition Directly to Native Dual Stack

   As an alternative to adopting any of the aforementioned migration
   tactics, domains can choose to transition to native dual stack
   directly by adding native IPv6 capabilities to their network and
   hosts and by publishing AAAA resource records in the DNS for named
   resources within their domain.  Of course, a domain can still control
   this transition gradually, on a name-by-name basis, by adding native
   IPv6 to one name at a time, such as mail.example.com first and
   www.example.com later.  So even a "direct" transition can be
   performed gradually.

   It is then up to end users with IPv6-related impairments to discover
   and fix any applicable impairments.  However, the concerns and risks
   related to traffic volume Section 2.3 should still be considered and
   managed, since those are not directly related to such impairments.
   Not all content providers (or other domains) may face the challenges
   detailed herein or face them to the same degree, since the user base
   of each domain, traffic sources, traffic volumes, and other factors
   obviously varies between domains.

   For example, while some content providers have implemented DNS
   Resolver Whitelisting (one migration tactic), others have run IPv6
   experiments whereby they added AAAA resource records and observed and
   measured errors, and then decided not to implement DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting [Heise].  A more widespread such experiment was World
   IPv6 Day [W6D], sponsored by the Internet Society, on June 8, 2011.
   This was a unique opportunity for hundreds of domains to add AAAA
   resource records to the DNS without using DNS Resolver Whitelisting,
   all at the same time.  Some of the participating domains chose to
   leave AAAA resource records in place following the experiment based
   on their experiences.

   Content providers can run their own independent experiments in the
   future, adding AAAA resource records for a brief period of time
   (minutes, hours, or days), and then analyzing any impacts or effects
   on traffic and the experience of end users.  They can also simply



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   turn on IPv6 for their domain, which may be easier when the
   transition does not involve a high-service-level domain.


5.  Potential Implementation Phases

   These usefulness of each tactic in Section 4, and the associated pros
   and cons associated with each tactic, is relative to each potential
   implementer and will therefore vary from one implementer to another.
   As a result, it is not possible to say that the potential phases
   below make sense for every implementer.  This also means that the
   duration of each phase will vary between implementers, and even that
   different implementers may skip some of these phases entirely.
   Finally, the tactics listed in Section 4 are by no means exclusive.

5.1.  No Access to IPv6 Content

   In this phase, a site is accessible only via IPv4 transport.  As of
   the time of this document, the majority of content on the Internet is
   in this state and is not accessible natively over IPv6.

5.2.  Using IPv6-Specific Names

   One possible first step for a domain is to gain experience using a
   specialized new FQDN, such as ipv6.example.com or
   www.ipv6.example.com, as explained in Section 4.2.

5.3.  Deploying DNS Resolver Whitelisting Using Manual Processes

   As noted in Section 4.3, a domain could begin using DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting as a way to incrementally enable IPv6 access to content.
   This tactic may be especially interesting to high-service-level
   domains.

5.4.  Deploying DNS Resolver Whitelisting Using Automated Processes

   For a domain that decides to undertake DNS Resolver Whitelisting on a
   manual basis, the domain may subsequently move to perform DNS
   Resolver Whitelisting on an automated basis.  This is explained in
   Section 4.3, and can significantly ease any operational burdens
   relating to a manually-maintained whitelist.

5.5.  Turning Off DNS Resolver Whitelisting

   Domains that choose to implement DNS Resolver Whitelisting generally
   consider it to be a temporary measure.  Many implementers have
   announced that they plan to permanently turn off DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting beginning on the date of the World IPv6 Launch, on June



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   6, 2012 [World IPv6 Launch].  For any implementers that do not turn
   off DNS Resolver Whitelisting at that time, it may be unclear how
   each and every one will judge when the network conditions to have
   changed sufficiently to justify turning off DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting.  That being said, it is clear that the extent of IPv6
   deployment to end users in networks, the state of IPv6-related
   impairment, and the maturity of IPv6 operations are all important
   factors.  Any such implementers may wish to take into consideration
   that, as a practical matter, it will be impossible to get to a point
   where there are no longer any IPv6-related impairments; some
   reasonably small number of hosts will inevitably be left behind as
   end users elect not to upgrade them or as some hosts are incapable of
   being upgraded.

5.6.  Deploying DNS Blacklisting

   Regardless of whether a domain has first implemented DNS Resolver
   Whitelisting or has never done so, DNS Blacklisting as described in
   Section 4.4 may become interesting.  This may be at the point in time
   when domains wish to make their content widely available over IPv6
   but still wish to protect end users of a few networks with well known
   IPv6 limitations from having a bad end user experience.

5.7.  Fully Dual-Stack Content

   A domain can arrive at this phase either following the use of a
   previous IPv6 migration tactic, or they may go directly to this point
   as noted in Section 4.5.  In this phase the site's content has been
   made natively accessible via both IPv4 and IPv6 for all end users on
   the Internet, or at least without the use of any other IPv6 migration
   tactic.


6.  Other Considerations

6.1.  Security Considerations

   If DNS Resolver Whitelisting is adopted, as noted in Section 4.3,
   then organizations which apply DNS Resolver Whitelisting policies in
   their authoritative servers should have procedures and systems which
   do not allow unauthorized parties to modify the whitelist or
   blacklist, just as all configuration settings for name servers should
   be protected by appropriate procedures and systems.  Such
   unauthorized additions or removals from the whitelist can be
   damaging, causing content providers and/or network operators to incur
   support costs resulting from end user and/or customer contacts, as
   well as causing potential dramatic and disruptive swings in traffic
   from IPv6 to IPv4 or vice versa.



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   DNS security extensions defined in [RFC4033], [RFC4034], and
   [RFC4035] use cryptographic digital signatures to provide origin
   authentication and integrity assurance for DNS data.  This is done by
   creating signatures for DNS data on a Security-Aware Authoritative
   Name Server that can be used by Security-Aware Resolvers to verify
   the answers.  Since DNS Resolver Whitelisting is implemented on an
   authoritative DNS server, which provides different answers depending
   upon which DNS resolver has sent a query, the DNSSEC chain of trust
   is not altered.  So even though an authoritative DNS server will
   selectively return AAAA resource records or a non-existence response,
   both types of response will be signed and will validate.  In
   practical terms this means that two separate views or zones are used,
   each of which is signed, so that whether or not particular resource
   records exist, the existence or non-existence of the record can still
   be validated using DNSSEC.  As a result, there should not be any
   negative impact on DNSSEC for those domains that have implemented
   both DNSSEC on their Security-Aware Authoritative Name Servers and
   also implemented DNS Resolver Whitelisting.  As for any party
   implementing DNSSEC of course, such domains should ensure that
   resource records are being appropriately and reliably signed and
   consistent with the response being returned.

   However, network operators that run DNS recursive resolvers should be
   careful not to modify the responses received from authoritative DNS
   servers.  It is possible that some networks may attempt to do so in
   order to prevent AAAA record responses from going to end user hosts,
   due to some IPv6-related impairment or other lack of IPv6 readiness
   with that network.  But when a network operates a Security-Aware
   Resolver, modifying or suppressing AAAA resource records for a
   DNSSEC-signed domain could break the chain of trust established with
   DNSSEC.

6.2.  Privacy Considerations

   As noted in Section 4.1, there is a benefit in sharing IPv6-related
   impairment statistics within the Internet community over time.  Any
   statistics that are shared or disclosed publicly should be aggregate
   statistics, such as "the domain example.com has observed an average
   daily impairment rate of 0.05% in September 2011, down from 0.15% in
   January 2011".  They should not include information that can directly
   or indirectly identify individuals, such as names or email addresses.
   Sharing only aggregate data can help protect end user privacy and any
   information which may be proprietary to a domain.

   In addition, there are often methods to detect IPv6-related
   impairments for a specific end user, such as running an IPv6 test
   when an end user visits the website of a particular domain.  Should a
   domain then choose to automatically communicate the facts of an



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   impairment to an affected user, there are likely no direct privacy
   considerations.  However, if the domain then decided to share
   information concerning that particular end user with that user's
   network operator or another third party, then the domain may wish to
   consider advising the end user of this and seeking to obtain the end
   user's consent to share such information.

   Appropriate guidelines for any information sharing likely varies by
   country and/or legal jurisdiction.  Domains should consider any
   potential privacy issues when considering what information can be
   shared.  If a domain does publish or share detailed impairment
   statistics, they would be well advised to avoid identifying
   individual hosts or users.

   Finally, if a domain chooses to contact end userd directly concerning
   their IPv6 impairments, that domain should ensure that such
   communication is permissible under any applicable privacy policies of
   the domain or its websites.

6.3.  Considerations with Poor IPv4 and Good IPv6 Transport

   There are situations where the differing quality of the IPv4 and IPv6
   connectivity of an end user could cause complications in accessing
   content when a domain is using an IPv6 migration tactic.  While today
   most end users' IPv4 connectivity is typically superior to IPv6
   connectivity (if such connectivity exists at all), there could be
   implications when the reverse is true and and end user has markedly
   superior IPv6 connectivity as compared to IPv4.  This is not a
   theoretical situation; it has been observed by at least one major
   content provider.

   For example, in one possible scenario, a user is issued IPv6
   addresses by their ISP and has a home network and devices or
   operating systems which fully support native IPv6.  As a result this
   theoretical user has very good IPv6 connectivity.  However, this end
   user's ISP has exhausted their available pool of unique IPv4 address,
   and uses NAT in order to share IPv4 addresses among end users.  So
   for IPv4 content, the end user must send their IPv4 traffic through
   some additional network element (e.g. large scale NAT, proxy server,
   tunnel server).  Use of this additional network element might cause
   an end user to experience sub-optimal IPv4 connectivity when certain
   protocols or applications are used.  This user then has good IPv6
   connectivity but impaired IPv4 connectivity.  As a result, the user's
   poor IPv4 connectivity situation could potentially be exacerbated
   when accessing a domain which is using a migration tactic that causes
   this user to only be able to access content over IPv4 transport for
   whatever reason.




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   Should this sort of situation become widespread in the future, a
   domain may wish to take it into account when deciding how and when to
   transition content to IPv6.

6.4.  IANA Considerations

   There are no IANA considerations in this document.


7.  Contributors

   The following people made significant textual contributions to this
   document and/or played an important role in the development and
   evolution of this document:

   - John Brzozowski

   - Chris Griffiths

   - Tom Klieber

   - Yiu Lee

   - Rich Woundy


8.  Acknowledgements

   The author and contributors also wish to acknowledge the assistance
   of the following individuals or groups.  Some of these people
   provided helpful and important guidance in the development of this
   document and/or in the development of the concepts covered in this
   document.  Other people assisted by performing a detailed review of
   this document, and then providing feedback and constructive criticism
   for revisions to this document, or engaged in a healthy debate over
   the subject of the document.  All of this was helpful and therefore
   the following individuals merit acknowledgement:

   - Bernard Aboba

   - Mark Andrews

   - Jari Arkko

   - Fred Baker

   - Ron Bonica




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   - Frank Bulk

   - Brian Carpenter

   - Lorenzo Colitti

   - Alissa Cooper

   - Dave Crocker

   - Ralph Droms

   - Wesley Eddy

   - J.D. Falk

   - Adrian Farrel

   - Stephen Farrell

   - Tony Finch

   - Karsten Fleischhauer

   - Igor Gashinsky

   - Wesley George

   - Philip Homburg

   - Jerry Huang

   - Ray Hunter

   - Joel Jaeggli

   - Erik Kline

   - Suresh Krishnan

   - Victor Kuarsingh

   - Marc Lampo

   - Donn Lee

   - John Leslie




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   - John Mann

   - Danny McPherson

   - Milo Medin

   - Martin Millnert

   - Russ Mundy

   - Thomas Narten

   - Pekka Savola

   - Robert Sparks

   - Barbara Stark

   - Joe Touch

   - Hannes Tschofenig

   - Tina Tsou

   - Members of the Broadband Internet Technical Advisory Group (BITAG)


9.  References

9.1.  Normative References

   [RFC1035]  Mockapetris, P., "Domain names - implementation and
              specification", STD 13, RFC 1035, November 1987.

   [RFC1794]  Brisco, T., "DNS Support for Load Balancing", RFC 1794,
              April 1995.

   [RFC1918]  Rekhter, Y., Moskowitz, R., Karrenberg, D., Groot, G., and
              E. Lear, "Address Allocation for Private Internets",
              BCP 5, RFC 1918, February 1996.

   [RFC1958]  Carpenter, B., "Architectural Principles of the Internet",
              RFC 1958, June 1996.

   [RFC2775]  Carpenter, B., "Internet Transparency", RFC 2775,
              February 2000.

   [RFC2782]  Gulbrandsen, A., Vixie, P., and L. Esibov, "A DNS RR for



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              specifying the location of services (DNS SRV)", RFC 2782,
              February 2000.

   [RFC2956]  Kaat, M., "Overview of 1999 IAB Network Layer Workshop",
              RFC 2956, October 2000.

   [RFC3234]  Carpenter, B. and S. Brim, "Middleboxes: Taxonomy and
              Issues", RFC 3234, February 2002.

   [RFC3724]  Kempf, J., Austein, R., and IAB, "The Rise of the Middle
              and the Future of End-to-End: Reflections on the Evolution
              of the Internet Architecture", RFC 3724, March 2004.

   [RFC4033]  Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
              Rose, "DNS Security Introduction and Requirements",
              RFC 4033, March 2005.

   [RFC4034]  Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
              Rose, "Resource Records for the DNS Security Extensions",
              RFC 4034, March 2005.

   [RFC4035]  Arends, R., Austein, R., Larson, M., Massey, D., and S.
              Rose, "Protocol Modifications for the DNS Security
              Extensions", RFC 4035, March 2005.

   [RFC4213]  Nordmark, E. and R. Gilligan, "Basic Transition Mechanisms
              for IPv6 Hosts and Routers", RFC 4213, October 2005.

9.2.  Informative References

   [Heise]    Heise.de, "The Big IPv6 Experiment", Heise.de
              Website http://www.h-online.com, January 2011, <http://
              www.h-online.com/features/
              The-big-IPv6-experiment-1165042.html>.

   [I-D.ietf-v6ops-happy-eyeballs]
              Wing, D. and A. Yourtchenko, "Happy Eyeballs: Success with
              Dual-Stack Hosts", draft-ietf-v6ops-happy-eyeballs-07
              (work in progress), December 2011.

   [IETF-77-DNSOP]
              Gashinsky, I., "IPv6 & recursive resolvers: How do we make
              the transition less painful?", IETF 77 DNS Operations
              Working Group, March 2010,
              <http://www.ietf.org/proceedings/77/slides/dnsop-7.pdf>.

   [IPv6-Brokenness]
              Anderson, T., "Measuring and Combating IPv6 Brokenness",



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              Reseaux IP Europeens (RIPE) 61st Meeting, November 2010,
              <http://ripe61.ripe.net/presentations/162-ripe61.pdf>.

   [IPv6-Growth]
              Colitti, L., Gunderson, S., Kline, E., and T. Refice,
              "Evaluating IPv6 adoption in the Internet", Passive and
              Active Management (PAM) Conference 2010, April 2010,
              <http://www.google.com/research/pubs/archive/36240.pdf>.

   [NW-Article-DNS-WL]
              Marsan, C., "Google, Microsoft, Netflix in talks to create
              shared list of IPv6 users", Network World , March 2010, <h
              ttp://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/
              032610-dns-ipv6-whitelist.html>.

   [NW-Article-DNSOP]
              Marsan, C., "Yahoo proposes 'really ugly hack' to DNS",
              Network World , March 2010, <http://www.networkworld.com/
              news/2010/032610-yahoo-dns.html>.

   [RFC6343]  Carpenter, B., "Advisory Guidelines for 6to4 Deployment",
              RFC 6343, August 2011.

   [Rethinking]
              Blumenthal, M. and D. Clark, "Rethinking the design of the
              Internet: The end to end arguments vs. the brave new
              world", ACM Transactions on Internet Technology Volume 1,
              Number 1, Pages 70-109, August 2001, <http://
              dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/1519/
              TPRC_Clark_Blumenthal.pdf>.

   [Tussle]   Braden, R., Clark, D., Sollins, K., and J. Wroclawski,
              "Tussle in Cyberspace: Defining Tomorrow's Internet",
              Proceedings of ACM Sigcomm 2002, August 2002, <http://
              groups.csail.mit.edu/ana/Publications/PubPDFs/
              Tussle2002.pdf>.

   [W6D]      The Internet Society, "World IPv6 Day - June 8, 2011",
              Internet Society Website http://www.isoc.org,
              January 2011, <http://isoc.org/wp/worldipv6day/>.

   [WL-Concerns]
              Brzozowski, J., Griffiths, C., Klieber, T., Lee, Y.,
              Livingood, J., and R. Woundy, "IPv6 DNS Resolver
              Whitelisting - Could It Hinder IPv6 Adoption?",
              ISOC Internet Society IPv6 Deployment Workshop,
              April 2010, <http://www.comcast6.net/
              IPv6_DNS_Whitelisting_Concerns_20100416.pdf>.



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   [WL-Ops]   Kline, E., "IPv6 Whitelist Operations", Google Google IPv6
              Implementors Conference, June 2010, <http://
              sites.google.com/site/ipv6implementors/2010/agenda/
              IPv6_Whitelist_Operations.pdf>.

   [Wild-Resolvers]
              Ager, B., Smaragdakis, G., Muhlbauer, W., and S. Uhlig,
              "Comparing DNS Resolvers in the Wild", ACM Sigcomm
              Internet Measurement Conference 2010, November 2010,
              <http://conferences.sigcomm.org/imc/2010/papers/p15.pdf>.

   [World IPv6 Launch]
              The Internet Society, "World IPv6 Launch Website", 2012,
              <http://www.worldipv6launch.org/>.


Appendix A.  Document Change Log

   [RFC Editor: This section is to be removed before publication]

   -11: Minor update to one item to resolve a question from IETF Last
   Call (same one as -09 and -10)

   -10: Minor update to one sentence to resolve a question from IETF
   Last Call

   -09: Minor updates to resolve questions in IETF Last Call

   -08: Minor updates from v6ops WGLC

   -07: Significant re-write based on feedback from Jari Arkko, Joel
   Jaeggli, Fred Baker, Igor Gashinsky, Donn Lee, Lorenzo Colitti, and
   Erik Kline.

   -06: Removed the Open Issue #8 concerning the document name, at the
   direction of Joel Jaeggli.  Removed Open Issue #2 from J.D. Falk and
   removed Open Issue #3 from Ray Hunter, as confirmed on the v6ops WG
   mailing list.  Revised the Abstract and Intro as recommended by Tony
   Finch.  Per Dave Crocker, updated the diagram following remedial
   ASCII art assistance, added a reference regarding IPv4-brokenness
   statistics.  Removed Open Issue #1, after validating proper reference
   placement and removing NAT444 reference.  Updates per Ralph Droms'
   review for the IESG.  Closed Open Issue #4, Per Joe Touch, moved
   section 8 to just after section 3 - and also moved up section 6 and
   merged it.  Closed Open Issue #5, per Dave Crocker and John Leslie,
   simplifying the document more, consolidating sections, etc.  Closed
   Open Issue #6.  Closed Open Issue #7, per Jari Arkko, ensuring all
   motivations are accounted for, etc.  Closed Open Issue #9, per



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   Stephen Farrell, re.  World IPv6 Day (retained reference but re-
   worded those sections).  Removed the happy-eyeballs reference since
   this was an informative reference and the draft could be delayed due
   to that dependency.  ALL OPEN ITEMS ARE NOW CLOSED.

   -05: Additional changes requested by Stephen Farrell intended to
   close his Discuss on the I-D.  These changes were in Sections 6.2 and
   8.3.  Also shortened non-RFC references at Stephen's request.

   -04: Made changes based on feedback received during IESG review.
   This does NOT include updated from the more general IETF last call -
   that will be in a -05 version of the document.  Per Ralph Droms,
   change the title of 6.2 from "Likely Deployment Scenarios" to
   "General Implementation Variations", as well as changes to improve
   the understanding of sentences in Sections 2, 3, 4, and 8.2.  Per
   Adrian Farrel, made a minor change to Section 3.  Per Robert Sparks,
   to make clear in Section 2 that whitelisting is done on authoritative
   servers and not DNS recursive resolvers, and to improve Section 8.3
   and add a reference to I-D.ietf-v6ops-happy-eyeballs.  Per Wesley
   Eddy, updated Section 7.3.2 to address operational concerns and re-
   titled Section 8 from "Solutions" to "General Implementation
   Variations".  Per Stephen Farrell, added text to Section 8.1 and
   Section 6.2, with a reference to 8.1 in the Introduction, to say that
   universal deployment is considered harmful.  Added text to Section 2
   per the v6ops list discussion to indicate that whitelisting is
   independent of the IP address family of the end user host or
   resolver.  There was also discussion with the IESG to change the name
   of the draft to IPv6 DNS Resolver Whitelisting or IPv6 AAAA DNS
   Resolver Whitelisting (as suggested originally by John Mann) but
   there was not a strong consensus to do so.  Added a new section 7.7,
   at the suggestion of Philip Homburg.  Per Joe Touch, added a new
   Section 8.4 on blacklisting as an alternative, mentioned blacklisting
   in Section 2, added a new Section 7.8 on the use of 3rd party
   resolvers, and updated section 6.2 to change Internet Draft documents
   to RFCs.  Minor changes from Barbara Stark.  Changes to the Privacy
   Considerations section based on feedback from Alissa Cooper.  Changed
   "highly-trafficked" domains to "high-traffic" domains.  Per Bernard
   Aboba, added text noting that a whitelist may be manually or
   automatically updated, contrasting whitelisting with blacklisting,
   reorganized Section 3, added a note on multiple clearinghouses being
   possible.  Per Pekka Savola, added a note regarding multiple
   clearinghouses to the Ad Hoc section, corrected grammar in Section
   7.5, reworded Section 7.3.7, corrected the year in a RIPE reference
   citation.  Also incorporated general feedback from the Broadband
   Internet Technical Advisory Group.  Per Jari Arkko, simplified the
   introduction to the Implications section, played down possible
   impacts on RFC 4213, added caveats to Section 8.3.2 on the utility of
   transition names, re-wrote Section 9.  Updated the Abstract and



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   Introduction, per errors noted by Tony Finch.  Updated the Security
   Considerations based on feedback from Russ Mundy.  Per Ray Hunter,
   added some text to the De-Whitelisting implications section regarding
   effects on networks of switching from IPv6 to IPv4.  Updated 7.3.1
   per additional feedback from Karsten Fleischhauer.  Per Dave Crocker,
   added a complete description of the practice to the Abstract, added a
   note to the Introduction that the operational impacts are
   particularly acute at scale, added text to Intro to make clear this
   practice affects all protocols and not just HTTP, added a new query/
   response diagram, added text to the Abstract and Introduction noting
   that this is an IPv6 transition mechanism, and too many other changes
   to list.

   -03: Several changes suggested by Joel Jaeggli at the end of WGLC.
   This involved swapping the order of Section 6.1 and 6.2, among other
   changes to make the document more readable, understandable, and
   tonally balanced.  As suggested by Karsten Fleischhauer, added a
   reference to RFC 4213 in Section 7.1, as well as other suggestions to
   that section.  As suggested by Tina Tsou, made some changes to the
   DNSSEC section regarding signing.  As suggested by Suresh Krishnan,
   made several changes to improve various sections of the document,
   such as adding an alternative concerning the use of ipv6.domain,
   improving the system logic section, and shortening the reference
   titles.  As suggested by Thomas Narten, added some text regarding the
   imperfection of making judgements as to end user host impairments
   based upon the DNS recursive resolver's IP and/or network.  Finally,
   made sure that variations in the use of 'records' and 'resource
   records' was updated to 'resource records' for uniformity and to
   avoid confusion.

   -02: Called for and closed out feedback on dnsop and v6ops mailing
   lists.  Closed out open feedback items from IETF 79.  Cleared I-D
   nits issues, added a section on whether or not this is recommended,
   made language less company-specific based on feedback from Martin
   Millnert, Wes George, and Victor Kuarsingh.  Also mentioned World
   IPv6 Day per Wes George's suggestion.  Added references to the ISOC
   World IPv6 Day and the Heise.de test at the suggestion of Jerry
   Huang, as well as an additional implication in 7.3.7.  Made any
   speculation on IPv4 impairment noted explicitly as such, per feedback
   from Martin Millnert.  Added a reference to DNS SRV in the load
   balancing section.  Added various other references.  Numerous changes
   suggested by John Brzozowski in several sections, to clean up the
   document.  Moved up the section on why whitelisting is performed to
   make the document flow more logically.  Added a note in the ad hoc
   deployment scenario explaining that a deployment may be temporary,
   and including more of the perceived benefits of this tactic.  Added a
   Privacy Considerations section to address end-user detection and
   communication.



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   -01: Incorporated feedback received from Brian Carpenter (from 10/19/
   2010), Frank Bulk (from 11/8/2010), and Erik Kline (from 10/1/2010).
   Also added an informative reference at the suggestion of Wes George
   (from from 10/22/2010).  Closed out numerous editorial notes, and
   made a variety of other changes.

   -00: First version published as a v6ops WG draft.  The preceding
   individual draft was
   draft-livingood-dns-whitelisting-implications-01.  IMPORTANT TO NOTE
   that no changes have been made yet based on WG and list feedback.
   These are in queue for a -01 update.


Appendix B.  Open Issues

   [RFC Editor: This section is to be removed before publication]

   Check references to ensure all of them are still necessary


Author's Address

   Jason Livingood
   Comcast Cable Communications
   One Comcast Center
   1701 John F. Kennedy Boulevard
   Philadelphia, PA  19103
   US

   Email: jason_livingood@cable.comcast.com
   URI:   http://www.comcast.com




















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