Sean Mentzer IP Architecture Building an IPv6 Test Network

Topics Purpose/Goals Constraints Design Resources Current IPv6 network Addresses Issues Looking Forward Sean Mentzer IP Architecture

Purpose/Goals Gain experience for our engineers in v6 concepts and network configurations. Create a semi-production network to test new v6 capable hardware/software. Preempt customer demand Get on fast track for deployment, hopefully to be able to use v6 service as a competitive edge. Sean Mentzer IP Architecture

Constraints Not a product, so how do we do anything? Without an official project, it is hard to get any money for what is seen as an “engineering pet project” First customers will be beta/non-paying, so intitially none of this will generate any revenue. Time spent by engineers is mostly in between all the official projects assigned. Make sure ‘service’ is not sold before there is a support structure in place, both in engineering and operations. Sean Mentzer IP Architecture

Design Deployment Get a router in as many POPs as possible. Wide Area Connections Use native links where possible, tunnel otherwise. Customer connectivity Existing v4 customers could tunnel to the nearest v6 enabled router. Connectivity with current v4 network Use whatever we can. Currently this means either FastE or POS OC3. Sean Mentzer IP Architecture

Resources Routers Customer access Cisco 7507s are being decomissioned. Keep one in each site as initial v6 router. Same situation will soon occur with many Cisco routers. These will replace 7507 where available. WAN The three OC3s of Qwest’s initial buildout from two years ago were decomissioned a while ago, but never turned off. These form the core of the initial v6 buildout. Servers We scrounged up a number of Intel boxes that could run Linux/FreeBSD and a couple Sun boxes for Solaris. Sean Mentzer IP Architecture

Current IPv6 Network Sean Mentzer IP Architecture

Addresses Started with pNLA assigned by Abilene, who provides our 6bone connectivity. Applied for production sTLA with ARIN, which was just approved a couple days ago. We are now just waiting for our check to clear to receive the allocation. Address architecture We are still trying to learn the best way to allocate addresses for our own internal network. Sean Mentzer IP Architecture

Router Issues Software Lack of v6 code Not all backbone router vendors have IPv6 code, limiting choices. Even those with code are still missing features, such as IGPs other than RIP. Router is “IPv6 ready”, but software is not. Claims that there is not enough customer demand to make IPv6 a priority. Code that is currently available is not necessarily as fast or as stable as current v4 code. Sean Mentzer IP Architecture

Looking Forward 1. Increase Network Size Get a v6 router per POP, add more native circuits. 2.Migrate to production Start adding beta customers and peers to get experience running a v6 network. Eventually create a product. 3. Integrate with production v4 network Stable code required, along with high performance code. Work with multiple vendors to ensure interoperability. One network for both v4 and v6 is the goal. Sean Mentzer IP Architecture