Overlay tunneling encapsulates IPv6 packets in IPv4 packets for delivery across an IPv4 infrastructure (a core network or the figure below). By using overlay tunnels, you can communicate with isolated IPv6 networks without upgrading the IPv4 infrastructure between them. Overlay tunnels can be configured between border devices or between a border device and a host; however, both tunnel endpoints must support both the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks. IPv6 supports the following types of overlay tunneling mechanisms: 1 Manual 2 Generic routing encapsulation (GRE) 3 IPv4-compatible 4 6to4 5 Intrasite Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP)