Cisco IPv6

Internet Protocol (IP) defines how computers communicate over a network. IPv4 contains just over 4 billion unique IP addresses, which were completely allocated to specific geographic regions on February 3, 2011. As the Internet transitions, organizations must adopt IPv6 to support future business continuity, growth, and global expansion.

The need for business continuity and innovation are central to IPv6. Learn how you can preserve existing investments, prepare for IPv6, and prosper in the new world.


IPv6 expands the number of network address bits from 32 bits (in IPv4) to 128 bits, which provides more than enough globally unique IP addresses for every networked device on the planet.

However, it’s not just about addressing. It’s about business continuity and innovation. The unlimited address space provided by IPv6 will allows us to deliver more and newer applications and services with reliability, improved user experience and increased security. These might include:

• Multiple internet-enabled mobile devices for every person on the planet
• Billions of embedded sensors using technologies such as RFID, IEEE 802.15.4, and Personal Area Networks
• Home and industrial appliances
• Smart grids

Organizations which choose to react to address exhaustion will find their customer base shrinking. It will be more difficult to innovate and more resources will be needed to sustain IPv4 investments. It’s best to be proactive.

Everyone has a different reason to adopt IPv6:

IPv6 Adopter	Purpose	Typical Industry
Mandated	Meet regulations, compete in the global market, and ensure service availability	Government and Public Sector
Motivated	Serve customers needing IPv6 access; deal with address exhaustion, globalization, and device proliferation	Service Providers
Ealy Adopter	Deal with address exhaustion, establish competitive differentiation	Utilities (smart grid) and mobile service providers
Mainstream	Business continuity, maintain customer reach, protect investments	Large enterprises, smaller business

• 
  How do I know if my organization really needs IPv6?
• How do I find out if my network is ready for IPv6?
• How do I get IPv6 addresses, and who provides them?
• How do I deploy IPv6 without disrupting my business?

Cisco is using a "preserve, prepare, and prosper" approach for enterprises, small business, and service providers.

• Preserve
  Retain your current IPv4 assets as you assess your needs and evaluate your readiness for transition to IPv6.
• Prepare
  Position yourself for new new growth with architectural designs, IPv6-ready technology solutions, and certifications. Create designs that don’t disrupt your existing IPv4 network.
• Prosper
  Cisco helps your organization maintain business continuity while expanding innovation and global reach. By opening markets that were once inaccessible—whether micro-loans made by mobile phone to small businesses in third world countries, or reaching new business partners in China, or educational organizations reaching out to students across continents—IPv6 allows for continued growth.

The Internet Protocol Journal is intended to serve as an informational and educational resource for engineering professionals involved in the design, development, and operation of public and private internets and intranets. It does not promote any specific products or services, but focuses on issues facing the network designer or operator. The journal carries tutorial articles ("What is...?") as well as implementation/operation articles ("How to..."). It provides readers with technology and standardization updates for all levels of the protocol stack and serves as a forum for discussion of all aspects of internetworking.

Topics include but are not limited to:

• Access and infrastructure technologies such as: ISDN, Gigabit Ethernet, SONET, ATM, xDSL, cable, fiber optics, satellite, wireless, and dial systems.
• Transport and interconnection functions such as: switching, routing, tunneling, protocol transition, multicast, and performance.
• Network management, administration, and security issues, including: authentication, privacy, encryption, monitoring, firewalls, troubleshooting, and mapping.
• Value-added systems and services such as: Virtual Private Networks, resource location, caching, client/server systems, distributed systems, network computing, and quality of service.
• Application and end-user issues such as: E-mail, Web authoring, server technologies and systems, electronic commerce, and application management.
• Legal, policy, and regulatory topics such as: copyright, content control, content liability, settlement charges, "modem tax," and trademark disputes in the context of internetworking.

Cisco Infrastructure Powers IPv6 Research Network:

BUSINESS CHALLENGE:

The Grid and Next-Generation Network (GrangeNet) is a government-funded, highperformance research network with points of presence (POPs) in Brisbane, Sydney, 

Canberra, and Melbourne, Australia. GrangeNet is Australia’s first native Internet 

Protocol version 6 (IPv6) network, and it is making the next-generation network

technology available to researchers for a variety of applications through its 

implementation in Cisco IOS

®

 Software. 

GrangeNet is a joint venture of Cisco Systems

®

, Australia’s Academic and Research 

Network (AARNet), the Australian Partnership for Advanced Computing, the Distributed

Systems Technologies Centre, and Australian service provider PowerTel. It was 

established in 2002 and has provided over AUS$5 million in matching funds to projects 

developing grid technologies. 

The network deploys applications that take advantage of IPv6. The goal is to make IP 

telephony, unicast, multicast, and many other mobile and peer-to-peer applications 

possible and more efficient among member research universities in Australia. The 

network also needs to interact with installations in Asia, Europe, and the Americas where 

IPv6 is now required for network application compatibility. Work on a 10-Gbps native 

IPv6 network began in March 2002 with special funding from the Department of

Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (DCITA), and the network went 

live seven months later. 

NETWORK SOLUTION:

All GrangeNet POPs are dual-stack (IPv4 and IPv6) enabled. The network offers a 

unicast IPv6 connection; IPv6 multicast is also available.

The GrangeNet Network Operations Center in Canberra operates and maintains the core

infrastructure and facilitates the connection of clients. The network core contains Cisco® 

ONS 15801 dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) optical transport platforms. Layer 1 optical connectivity at 2.5-Gbps speeds

is provided using the Cisco ONS 15454 SONET Multiservice Provisioning Platform (MSPP), Layer 2 switched Ethernet is furnished with 

Cisco 7609 Routers with Supervisor 720 Engines at the network edge, and Layer 3 IPv4 and IPv6 is supported with Gigabit Ethernet cards 

in Cisco 7600 Series Routers. At the major POPs, GrangeNet uses links to the AARNet Southern Cross Cable Network (SCCN) for 

connectivity to other research networks in Asia, Europe, and the Americas.  

Videoconferencing dominates researchers’ use of IPv6. “The researchers are doing a lot of multicast for videoconferences and bulk file 

transfers from instruments that are connected to the network, such as electron microscopes,” says Greg Wickham, GrangeNet’s network operation manager. “You can create peer-to-peer relationships using IPv4 and IPv6 routing at Layers 1 through 3, using Lambda for optical 

equipment at Layer 1 and through Ethernet switching at Layer 2.”   

GrangeNet is delivering IPv6-based native unicast services to 14 universities in Australia, where researchers use unicast to develop

applications for network-based testing and monitoring of experiments and phenomena. Research spans the social sciences and physical

sciences, from linguistics to chemistry.

The network is also offering multicast at Layer 3 using a single route processor. “We anticipate offering IPv6 interdomain basic multicast 

when Multiprotocol Border Gateway Protocol becomes available on the Cisco 7609 Routers,” says Chris Myers, GrangeNet’s advanced

communications services coordinator. 

BUSINESS BENEFITS:

“We’re seeing a huge push for IPv6, especially for research contacts with China, Japan, and Korea, where IPv4 addresses are expected to

run out by 2013,” says Peter Elford, Cisco sales manager in Australia and a member of the GrangeNet board of directors.  

With the exponential growth of IP-addressable devices, the IPv4 addressing scheme is giving way to the 128-bit addressing length feature 

of IPv6, which will enable every single Internet device to have its own unique IP address. Current techniques to make more efficient use of

the existing pool of IP addresses—such as Network Address Translation (NAT)—break the model of peer-to-peer applications. NAT, 

which connects multiple computers to networks using only one IP address, requires modification of packets between endpoints and

therefore does not allow for the end-to-end packet integrity required for effective security and for peer-to-peer connections for such 

applications as IP telephony and IP videoconferencing. IPv6 precludes the need for NAT in unicast and multicast applications and will 

create greater scale and integrity between peer-to-peer applications.

“Voice-over-IP using Session Initiation Protocol and multicast or broadcast video 

delivery are big emerging applications,” says Wickham. “We are particularly interested 

in working with newer networks in Asia, and IPv6 is a key criterion. We want to build 

applications with longevity. That will increasingly mean that they will run IPv6.” 

In the fall of 2005, delegates at the first Australian IPv6 Summit watched the Melbourne 

Cup horse race, streamed over GrangeNet as a demonstration of IPv6 multicast. “The 

uses for IPv6-enabled applications like multicast and mobility will touch virtually 

everyone,” says Charles Smith, a Cisco network consulting engineer who has supported 

the development of GrangeNet. “We’re already demonstrating its use in sports, particle

physics, astronomy, and the list goes on.” 

As a pioneer of IPv6 technology since 1996, and a trusted business and technology partner, Cisco is an established leader in your journey towards IPv6 planning and migration.


Cisco has pioneered IPv6 technology since its inception in 1996. Our organization leads the way by developing standards on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and integrating IPv6 into its services and technology portfolio. This commitment to integration helps customers preserve their technology investments. Today, we offer broad range of architectures, products, services, and training to help customers establish a plan to implement IPv6.

We understand that governments worldwide must meet regulations to provide reliable services and access to their populations. To continue delivering high quality Internet services to their citizens, they have a single, clear choice: Cisco.

But whether you're a large or small government, a service provider, an enterprise, or a small business whose motivation is business continuity or competitive advantage, Cisco can help you establish a transition plan for IPv6 - a plan to help you preserve, prepare, and prosper, as your needs demand.

IPv6 Solution	Cisco	Competitors
Proven IPv6 Adoption and Deployment Services	Yes	Few
Transition-Ready Products	Yes	Some
Transition-Ready Products	Broadest Portfolio	Some
DoD Certified Products	Broadest Portfolio	Some
First USGv6 Certified Firewalls	Yes	No
First Voice Solution with Local Session Controller (LSC) Certification	Yes	No
IPv6-enabled Home Networking Products	Yes	Few or None
IPv6 Forum IPv6 Ready Certified Products	Yes	Few
IPv6 Education/Training Certification from IPv6 Forum	Yes	Limited
Industry-leading Technical Assistance Center	Yes	No

Essential technology, proven services, certified training, and certified software and hardware combine to create your personalized IPv6 migration plan.


Cisco Services has helped large enterprises, government agencies, and some of the world’s leading service providers with IPv6.

We accomplish this with:

• A phased migration plan to preserve, prepare, and prosper
• Migration design and support
• More than 10 years of IPv6 experience

Our proven process enables customers to proactively budget time, money, and resources, as well as prioritize critical areas of the business and network.

As part of your IPv6 transition, Cisco helps implement dual-stack (PDF – 274 KB), tunneling, and translation services. These are the main integration techniques; they are required by all environments and adhere to these objectives:

• Network planning and operations managers must be able to schedule IPv6 deployment wherever and whenever needed.
• New or updated applications must work with any protocol. IPv4/IPv6 services are possible between hosts/applications.
• Incremental upgrade and deployment must be possible without service interruptions while reconfiguring routers.
• Operational costs, learning curve, and support requirements must be minimized.

Several categories of IPv6-certified Cisco technology may prove integral to your migration plan. These include:

• IOS Software
• CRS-1, ASR 1000 Series, cable, and other routers
• Switches, including data center switches and the energy-saving Catalyst series
• Wireless controllers and access points
• Multilayer storage
• Security
• Network management.

Cisco Services for IPv6 :

Executive Summary 

To meet the imminent threat of IPv4 address exhaustion, Cisco

 Advanced Services has developed a service 

solution to help customers meet this challenge and smoothly integrate IPv6 into their environments. 

Cisco Advanced Services offer a complete portfolio designed to meet customer needs across all phases of the 

customer’s network lifecycle, from preparing and planning to operations and optimization,

Cisco Services for IPv6 are mapped to this same network lifecycle, creating a framework for IPv6 integration activities 

and deliverables that best meet the customer’s needs for cost savings, risk mitigation, and time to completion.