Networking Software (IOS & NX-OS)

The continuous growth of the global Internet requires that its architecture evolve to accommodate the new technologies that support growing numbers of users, applications, appliances, and services. Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is designed to meet these requirements by again making IP addressing rules transparent to applications.

Market Drivers

The current IP address space is unable to satisfy the potential huge increase in the number of users, the geographical needs of Internet expansion, or the requirements of emerging applications such as Internet-enabled wireless devices, home and industrial appliances, Internet-connected transportation, integrated telephony services, sensor networks such as RFID, IEEE 802.15.4/6LoWPAN, and distributed computing or gaming.

In addition to the benefits of a larger address space, IPv6 includes improvements that simplify network administration, such as:

• Simplified headers for routing efficiency
• Deeper hierarchy and policies for network architecture flexibility for efficient support for routing and route aggregation
• Serverless autoconfiguration, easier renumbering, and improved ready-to-use support
• Security with mandatory IP Security (IPSec) implementation for all IPv6 devices
• Improved support for Mobile IP and mobile computing devices (direct path)
• Enhanced multicast support with increased addresses and more efficient mechanisms

Cisco believes in providing its customers and partners with comprehensive information on significant emerging technologies so that they are fully informed and can work jointly with Cisco to implement the best solutions for their environments.

As an pioneer in IPv6 technology, Cisco has been a driving force in determining IPv6 standards through various standards bodies, including the Internet Engineering Task Force, and has been shipping and supporting a wide variety of end-to-end IPv6 products and solutions.

Selection of a deployment strategy depends on your current network environment, and on factors such as the forecast amount of IPv6 traffic and the availability of IPv6 applications on end systems and appliances, at a given stage in the deployment.

Cisco IPv6 Solutions Deployment

Cisco IPv6 solutions are packaged in a feature set that is supported on specific platforms and applications packages. On Cisco IOS Software platforms, Cisco Feature Navigator dynamically updates the list of supported platforms as support for new platforms and features is added. IPv6 services are part of Cisco IOS Software releases, and any router that runs IPv6 must conform to the minimum memory size required by the selected Cisco IOS Software release and feature set.

Before deploying IPv6, please refer to Cisco Feature Navigator to make sure that your environment meets all hardware and software prerequisites for deployment.

IPv6 Security

• Multi-Topology IS-IS
• Datacenter Switches
  The Cisco Nexus 7000 Family has been designed to support IPv6 since its inception. See product details. Customers can enable IPv6 by configuring the protocol on Cisco NX-OS software release. To read more details about the IPv6 feature set on the Nexus 7000 Family, please refer to the Cisco NX-OS documentation.
• Configuring IPv6
• Deploying IPv6 in Campus Networks
  

  This document provides a brief overview of the various campus IPv6 deployment models and general deployment considerations, and provides the implementation details for each model.

IPv6 Integration Paper Series

• Deploying IPv6 in Branch Networks
  A brief overview of various branch IPv6 deployment profiles and general deployment considerations.
• DHCPv6-Based IPv6 Access Service
  This paper discuss the basics of DHCPv6 and various implementation models to allow service providers to architect IPv6 access services using Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6).
• Deploying IPv6 Over MPLS
  Cisco IOS IPv6 Provider Edge Router (6PE) over MPLS
• IPv6 Access Services

Deploying IPv6 Multicast

• Cisco Virtual Office-Deploying DMVPN for IPv6
  This white paper provides detailed design and implementation information relating to the deployment of Dynamic Multipoint Virtual Private Network (DMVPN) for IPv6 with Cisco Virtual Office.
• IPv6 Extension Headers Review and Considerations
  This document reviews the concepts of IPv6 Extension Header (EH). It focuses on the implications that the presence of extension headers have on the native IPv6 traffic forwarding performance of network devices