IPv6 Essentials, 3rd Edition

Chapter 9. Planning for IPv6

After all these chapters describing the features of IPv6 from a technical perspective, this final chapter puts it all together.

It summarizes all I have learned in more than 10 years of studying, working, playing, teaching, and consulting for IPv6. It puts at your disposal all that is relevant to understand what it takes to plan the integration of IPv6. It is a summary of all the answers to the most frequent questions I get when talking with customers. And I hope to make you feel a little enthusiastic about the opportunities that IPv6 offers. So I wish you a good read and lots of fun learning about and planning for IPv6.

While it is true that the integration in a larger network presents some challenges and takes a lot of time and careful planning, there is no need to panic or think that it could not be mastered. Every decent engineer that mastered the introduction of DHCP, VPNs, and NATs will also master the introduction of IPv6. The main difference is in the fact that IPv6 as the transport protocol touches almost every component in the network, so the complexity comes from considering all interactions between the different network components, services, and departments. The challenge is in the organizational aspects, the design of the future architecture, and the interdependencies of all groups and parts of the network and applications.

But the process can be broken down in single doable steps and they do not have to be accomplished in three months if you ...