[c-nsp] IPv6

[Bernhard Schmidt]

Brian,

> I've been pulled into a project where we'll be doing an IPv6 demo.  Does
> anyone have any suggestions on which switching hardware and routing
> hardware might be appropriate for this?  We'd like to go v6 all the way
> from end to end, and CCO seems a bit slim on what features are
> implemented on which platform.  Has anyone succesfully deployed v6?

Basic features are implemented in most "modern" router platforms (17xx, 26xx, 
36xx, 72xx, 75xx, GSR) in recent IOS trains (12.0S on GSR, 12.2S on 7xxx, 
12.3 on all of them except GSR). Basic means forwarding and IGP+BGP. Beware 
of the memory demands, for IPv6 on 12.3 you need big feature sets (IP PLUS or 
even ENTERPRISE for IS-IS), those images are bigger than flash/memory of 
older boxes. Forwarding speed should be almost equal to IPv4. For more 
advanced features (e.g. IPv6 multicast) you need either 12.2(25)S (which is 
only available for 7xxx) or a recent 12.3T.

It doesn't look that good on switching platforms. The only platform supporting 
IPv6 by now is the 6500 Sup720. The IOS (12.2SXD?) is said to be a little bit 
buggy, but apparently it works most of the time. The hardware of the Catalyst 
3750 is advertised to be ready for IPv6, but there is no software yet.

We are running native and tunneled IPv6 on 7206 with various NPEs (NPE-G1, 
NPE-400, NPE-300) with IOS 12.2(18)S, works very good.

What hardware and bandwidth are you talking about?

Bernhard