Abstract—Deploying the new generation ”Internet Protocol”(IPv6) over 802.16-based wireless networks is facing animportant challenge as the IEEE 802.16 standard is failingto support IPv6 functionalities. In fact, unlike the other802 standards, the IEEE 802.16 is based on a point-tomultipoint(PMP) communication model, where no directconnection (at the MAC layer) is possible between twostations, all communications pass through the Base Station.As a result, the 802.16 standard is unable to handle anyform of IP multicast (group) communication, and hence itcan not sustain the new functionality of IPv6, namely autoconfigurationmechanism, which particularly relies on IPmulticast communication.In this paper, we present different architectures to considerwhen deploying IPv6 over wireless broadband network, suchas WiMAX. Also, we point out challenges and solutionsrelated to this deployment, by focusing particularly onsolutions proposed by the 16ng IETF group, which aimsto establish an Internet RFC on deploying IPv6 over IEEE802.16.
 
Index Terms—IPv6, IEEE 802.16, IEEE 802.16e, Multicast,WiMAX

Cite: Adlen Ksentini, "IPv6 over IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) networks: Facts and challenges," Journal of Communications, vol. 3, no.3, pp.1-9, 2008. Doi: 10.4304/jcm.3.3.1-9