Transition and mobility management in the integrated IPv4 and IPv6 network - A systematic review

The transition between the IPv4 Internet today and the IPv6 Internet will be a long process during both protocols coexists and also it is unreasonable to expect that many millions of IPv4 nodes will be converted overnight. Mobility is becoming ubiquitous now-a-days. This paper is presented with a survey on the three IPv4-IPv6 transition mechanisms, how these mechanisms are incorporated in the various architectures, the advantages and limitations and comparison of the mechanisms suitable for mixed two different promising IP network environments. A study in this paper explores that most research efforts were focused only in IPv6 initiated communications (from IPv6 based network) with IPv4 nodes (in IPv4 based network) and also reveals that although many transition implemented architectures have been proposed, scenarios and issues such as the IPv6 nodes visiting IPv4 network, IPv4 nodes visiting IPv6 network, configuring IPv6 nodes visiting IPv4 network, configuring IPv4 nodes visiting IPv6 network and initiate communications with other nodes irrespective of IP version of network remain open. The main objective of this paper is to point out some of the key research issues, promote developments and accelerate the research efforts towards the integrated IPv4 and IPv6 network which is most immediately required.