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15. Distribution of globally routable IPv6 over
SPB
Please note that IPv6 will be supported over SPB for the VSP 9000 during the first half of 2014. This
section will cover supporting IPv6 using the current software over SPB.
15.1 VENA Solution Brief
This short document is intended to provide an overview of a tested topology over shortest path bridging
(IEEE 802.1aq) environments for the distribution of globally routable IPv6 addressing using L2 VSN's and
inter-VSN routing.
The high level results of the work demonstrate that an enterprise can effectively use SPB to provide for
the overlay of a routed IPv6 infrastructure that is incongruent to the existing IPv4 topology. Furthermore,
with IPv4 default gateways resident on the L2 VSN's, dual stack end stations can have full end to end
hybrid connectivity without the use of L3 transition methods such as 6to4, ISATAP, or Teredo. This
results in a clean and simple implementation that allows for the use of allocated globally routable IPv6
addresses in a native fashion.
15.2 IPv6 in General
IPv6 is the next generation form of IP addressing. Replacing IPv4 it is intended to provide greatly
enhanced address space as well as end to end transparency which was becoming more and more
difficult by the increasing use of Network Address Translation (NAT) in IPv4. NAT was created in order to
provide for the use of 'private' IPv4 addressing within an organization and then allow for a gateway device
to interface out to the public Internet. Even this technology however could not forestall the unavoidable
event that occurred earlier this year contiguous blocks of IPv4 addresses have run out.
Currently, there are address recycling efforts that will provide some reprieve but in the immanent future
even this effort will be exhausted.
These events have caused a recent surge in the interest in IPv6. Many enterprises that had it on the back
burner are now taking a new look at this technology and the requirements that need to met for their
organizations to deploy it. For the first time investigator this can be a daunting task. Beyond the
knowledge of IPv6 itself, one needs to learn all of the methods required in order to co-exist in an IPv4
network environment. This is a strict requirement because no one will completely forklift their complete
communications environment and even if they could there are issues with contact to the outside world
that need to be addressed. The reason for this is that the IPv6 suite is NOT directly backwards
compatible to IPv4. This complication has caused quite a bit of effort within the IETF to resolve. There are
a number of RFC's, drafts as well as deprecated drafts that cover a wide variety of translation or transition
methods. Each has its own set of complications and security or resiliency issues that need to be dealt
with. At the end of the day, most IT personnel walk away with a headache and wish for the good old days
of just IPv4.
During the time since IPv6 was first introduced different schools of thought evolved as to how this co-
existence between IPv4 and IPv6 could be addressed. Network and Port Translation (NAT-PT) came into
vogue but has since faded off into deprecation as the approach has largely proved to be intractable.
Other methods have stayed and even become 'default'. As an example, all Microsoft OS's running IPv6
run 6to4, ISATAP and Teredo tunneling methods.
So it has become clear. One school has won out and that school of thought is... dual stack in the end
stations and tunneling across the IPv4 network to tie IPv6 islands together. These methods work, but as I
pointed out earlier, they all have complications and issues that need to be dealt with.
Avaya Inc. – External Distribution
March 2013
146
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