AX Series: IPv6, IPv4 Dual Stack

Overview:

With IPv6 as the designated successor to IPv4, enterprises and service providers are evaluating products and solutions to enable a smooth transition from IPv4 to IPv6. To handle IPv6's larger address space and resources, and ensure forward and backward compatibility with legacy IPv4 systems, a high-performance IPv4/IPv6 gateway is required.

AX Series New-Generation Server Load Balancer: High-Performance IPv4/IPv6 Gateway
A10 Networks' AX Series new generation server load balancers provide the industry's highest performance IPv4/IPv6 gateway to ensure a smooth transition. The AX Series includes the most comprehensive set of IPv6 features of any server load balancer on the market. With AX, customers can run IPv4 and IPv6 features simultaneously through a scalable high-performance platform designed to address the transition requirements and beyond.

AX Benefits:

• AX Series offers the highest performance IPv4/IPv6 gateway on the market for load balancing IPv6 traffic, and for high-speed IPv4/IPv6 translation.
• AX Series has the most IPv6 features of any server load balancer on the market, with the capability to run IPv4 and IPv6 features simultaneously.
• AX Series is a proven IPv6 solution with several very large deployments underway. Recent successes include seamless IPv4-IPv6 and IPv6-IPv4 translation for the IETF Conference network, and a flawless performance as the IPv6 gateway at Interop Tokyo 2007 and 2008.
• AX Series is a new generation platform, tuned for multi-core CPU environments, and is therefore capable of handling the high-performance requirements for IPv6.

 

Key Features:

IPv4 and IPv6 Server Load Balancer Dual-Stack Support

• Both IPv4 and IPv6 features can run simultaneously.

IPv6 Server Load Balancing

• Comprehensive support for Layer 4 (TCP/UDP), Layer 7 (HTTP/Fast-HTTP), and SSL (HTTPS) IPv6 virtual addresses.
• Support for IPv6 server health checks.

IPv4-IPv6/IPv6-IPv4 Double NAT

• Move from one IPv4 address allocated per customer to one IPv4 address per x customers.
• Enable legacy IPv4 devices to keep talking to the IPv4 Internet.
• Enable needed communication for new IPv6 devices to the IPv4 Internet.
• Ensure full IPv6 connectivity.

High Availability

• Active-Standby - One AX provides service while the other is a hot standby.
• Active-Active - Both AX devices simultaneously provide service and act as hot standbys for each another.
• IPv6 session synchronization provides uninterrupted service following failover.
• Multiple High Availability sets can be deployed in the same network for even greater service protection.

Flexibility of Deployment

• Transparent Mode - Insert the AX device as a Layer 2 switch with a single IP interface.
• Gateway Mode - Add the AX device as a Layer 3 router.

AX Management Through IPv6

• Ping, SSH, HTTP, SCP, and SFTP are supported.

IPv6 Routing

• Static IPv6 route and neighbor configuration is supported now.
• Dynamic routing will be supported.

Performance

• 64-byte packets:  10 M pkts/sec total (5 M ingress, 5 M egress)
• 128-byte packets: 7.5 M pkts/sec total (3.75 M ingress, 3.75 M egress)

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Success Stories:

Interop Tokyo 2010 ShowNet
The 64-bit AX Series ran live traffic to support LSN, DS-Lite, IPv4-IPv6 SLB and IPv4 DNS SLB.

Interop Tokyo 2009 ShowNet
AX Series ran live traffic to support IPv4-to-IPv6 translation for the ShowNet. In addition, live 40 Gb throughput demonstrations were conducted for IPv4 server load balancing (SLB) and IPv6 SLB during the exhibition.

Interop Tokyo 2008
The AX Series was invited for the second year in a row to be the only server load balancer for the Interop Tokyo "Shownet," where it load balanced live IPv4/IPv6 traffic, and demonstrated superior IPv6 performance and features such as Network Address Translation (NAT) between IPv4/IPv6. The AX Series won Grand Prix/Best of Interop Tokyo 2008 as Best Carrier/ISP Solution for its comprehensive solutions for transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6 and innovative Web Application Delivery platform.

IETF Conference 2008
At the 2008 IETF Conference, the AX 2200 successfully translated the network from IPv4 to IPv6 and from IPv6 to IPv4 flawlessly in a double NAT topology while serving as a high-performance gateway.

Interop Tokyo 2007
The AX Series was invited to be the only server load balancing device for the Interop Tokyo "Shownet," where it load balanced "live" IPv4, IPv6 and Secure Socket Layer (SSL) traffic that was used by thousands of concurrent users at the event. The AX Series also won Grand Prix/Best of Interop Tokyo 2007, beating many competitors including F5's Big-IP 8400, and Cisco's ACE and 7200, through a unanimous vote by the judges.