With the proliferation of web-enabled devices, it’s not surprising to hear concerns about the dwindling pool of IP addresses.  The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has proposed a solution to this problem.  From their IPv6 Information page:

IPv6 is the “next generation” protocol designed by the IETF to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IP Version 4 (“IPv4”).

Most
of today’s internet uses IPv4, which is now nearly twenty years old.
IPv4 has been remarkably resilient in spite of its age, but it is
beginning to have problems. Most importantly, there is a growing
shortage of IPv4 addresses, which are needed by all new machines added
to the Internet.

IPv6 fixes a number of problems in IPv4, such
as the limited number of available IPv4 addresses. It also adds many
improvements to IPv4 in areas such as routing and network
autoconfiguration. IPv6 is expected to gradually replace IPv4, with the
two coexisting for a number of years during a transition period.

IPv6 Reverse Proxies for E-Business Suite Instances

Oracle E-Business Suite Releases 11i and 12 have now been certified to be IPv6-compliant, providing IPv6 support via an IPv6 to IPv4 reverse proxy architecture.

IPv6 Reverse Proxy: Diagram showing IPv6 to IPv4 reverse proxy architecture for the E-Business Suite


In this reverse proxy architecture:
  • IPv6 traffic outside the E-Business Suite installation stops at the reverse proxy.
  • Traffic inside the E-Business Suite data installation, behind the reverse proxy, is transmitted via IPv4.
This architecture requires the E-Business Suite installation to support IPv4 or “mixed-mode” traffic.

Prerequisites

E-Business Suite Release 11i:
  • 11.5.10 Consolidated Update 1 or 2
  • TXK (FND & ADX) AutoConfig Rollup Patch O (December 2006) or later
  • AutoConfig Template Rollup (TXK) M or later
  • Desktop clients running the Sun Java Runtime Engine (JRE) Plug-In
  • Client/Server Modules served from an IPv6-compliant desktop server

E-Business Suite Release 12
  • Desktop clients running the Sun Java Runtime Engine (JRE) Plug-In
References

Implementation steps for enabling an IPv6 reverse proxy in your environment will vary depending on what you use for a web listener.  We’ve documented a set of implementation steps for an example architecture that uses a Linux-based Oracle HTTP Server (based on Apache 2.0) reverse proxy.  For details, see: