Guidance for demonstrating IPv6 capability
Connecting state and local government leaders
The Federal CIO Council has published guidelines for demonstrating IPv6 capability across agency backbones.
The Federal CIO Council has published guidelines for demonstrating IPv6 capability across agency backbones.
The 'Demonstration Plan to Support Agency IPv6 Compliance' lists the minimum requirements for meeting the June 30 deadline for enabling backbones for the next generation of Internet Protocols, explains the equipment needed and defines the criteria for success in the demonstration.
The Office of Management and Budget in 2005 mandated that civilian agencies enable IPv6 on their core networks by the end of June. The Defense Department had earlier established a requirement that its networks be IPv6 enabled by the same deadline. Although it is left to each agency to decide when and how it will deploy and use IPv6, the CIO Council has established the requirements for complying with the mandate.
As spelled out the by the council in 2006, agencies must demonstrate they can:
- Transmit IPv6 traffic from the Internet and external peers, through the network backbone (core), to the LAN;
- Transmit IPv6 traffic from the LAN, through the network backbone (core), out to the Internet and external peers;
- Transmit IPv6 traffic from the LAN, through the network backbone (core), to another LAN (or another node on the same LAN).
- Identify its operational core backbone network, based on the definition provided by the CIO Council's IPv6 Working Group: 'For the purposes of the IPv6 transition, the core network (a.k.a. backbone network) is the set of network transport devices (routers, switches) that provide the highest level of traffic aggregation in the network, and thus at the highest level of hierarchy in the network.'
- Configure IPv6 on all routers and switches in the agency's core network.
- Identify which external network or networks will be used for the demonstrations and how the Agency's IPv6 core network will connect to them.
- Develop a diagram of the core network, depicting IPv6 addressing, internal network connectivity and topology, and external network connectivity.
NEXT STORY: Google unveils low-cost collaboration platform