IETF standardizes IPv6-only and IPv6-mostly definitions to guide network operators

Clear terminology is critical for streaming operators managing CDNs and edge delivery, where incorrect configuration of transition mechanisms can increase latency or degrade quality of service. As mobile carriers shift heavily toward IPv6-only access with 464XLAT, video delivery architectures must ensure compatibility with stateless NAT46 to avoid broken connections. Standardizing these definitions reduces the accidental use of improper mechanisms in unmanaged residential networks, ensuring video traffic remains local where possible instead of being routed through cloud-based translation layers. Watch for increased ISP demand for CLAT-capable customer premise equipment (CPE) to further reduce reliance on expensive public IPv4 address pools.

The IETF’s move to formalize these definitions coincides with a major industry milestone. As of July 2026, Google reports that native IPv6 traffic has officially surpassed the 50% threshold globally, marking the end of IPv4’s dominance in consumer and mobile sectors. Per Internet Society Pulse, countries such as France, Germany, and India are leading this shift, with well over 70% of their mobile and residential traffic now routing via native IPv6. This growth is largely driven by the depletion of the IPv4 address space, which has seen the market price for legacy addresses trade between $50 and $65 per unit in recent years.

Despite high aggregate numbers, adoption remains uneven. While mobile networks have matured, roughly only 35% of the top one million websites natively support dual-stack HTTP, and enterprise adoption of IPv6 hovers around 32% as of early 2026. This gap creates an ongoing reliance on transition technologies like NAT64 and DNS64. Network performance analytics from Akamai in March 2026 indicated that while IPv6 is technically superior, median latency for content delivery can still run 5–15ms higher than IPv4 in certain scenarios due to suboptimal routing or mature IPv4 infrastructure density.

In the software ecosystem, vendor support is catching up to regulatory mandates. In addition to Microsoft’s Windows 11 updates, Apple has mandated IPv6-only compatibility for all iOS App Store submissions for several years, a policy that significantly accelerated the deployment of CLAT on mobile interfaces. However, per SixMap reporting from January 2026, many IoT and resource-constrained devices still struggle in IPv6-only environments, with only 8.6% of tested devices functioning correctly without an IPv4 fallback. This persistent incompatibility reinforces why the IETF is prioritizing the 'IPv6-mostly' model for managed networks to facilitate a gradual, host-by-host migration.