Presentation by Tim Chown for the Jisc event Tech 2 Tech IPv6 on 20 April 2021

1. Janet Tech 2 Tech : IPv6
Tim Chown, Jisc
tim.chown@jisc.ac.uk
20 April 2021

2. 2
Agenda
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
Today’s Topics…
• A quick ‘What is IPv6?’
• IPv6 deployment status
• Business drivers for IPv6 in R&E organisations
• IPv6 on Janet
• Where might I deploy IPv6 first in my network?
• How should I deploy IPv6?
• What are the important considerations?
• What sources of help are out there? How can Jisc help me?
• When can I remove IPv4?
• And some examples of IPv6 in action, time permitting

3. 3
What is IPv6?
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
It’s still IP, but different
• The key difference is 128-bit addressing
• Enough globally unique address space to support Internet growth and innovation
• The notation used to write addresses is different
• e.g., 2001:db8:e380:d0:920a:2380:b230:1106
• IPv6 has different scopes of address
• Link-local, Unique Local Addresses (ULAs), globally unique addresses
• Multi-addressing as the norm
• There are new ways to configure addresses
• Most notably stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC)
• SLAAC implicitly means all host subnets are /64 in size
• But there is also the option of the comfy slippers of DHCPv6

4. 4
IPv6 deployment status
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
Up and to the right
• There are various measurements out there for IPv6
deployment, including summaries at
• http://www.worldipv6launch.org/measurements/
• https://labs.ripe.net/Members/mirjam/content-ipv6-
measurement-compilation
• Overall, the world is approaching 35% IPv6, with the UK
also at about that level
• Adoption varies by sector: residential, mobile, enterprise
• In the UK, initial growth from late 2015 was due to Sky
• https://stats.labs.apnic.net/ipv6/GB
• Janet sits at under 10%
• R&E well behind commercial adoption

5. 5
Business drivers for IPv6 deployment
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
In an R&E context
• Availability of globally unique IP address space
• Supporting teaching and research
• Ensuring robust access to your public-facing services
• Avoiding a rushed deployment; build technical credit not debt
• Simplifying network operations and management
• IPv6 security in an ‘IPv4 only’ network
• Enabling innovation at the edge
• Keeping up with UK residential IPv6 deployment

6. 6
IPv6 on Janet
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
Janet provides IPv6 natively to your site
• The Janet backbone is dual-stack throughput
• IPv6 is available natively to your site
• Contact the Jisc Service Desk to turn it on
• Jisc obtained the prefix 2001:630::/32 in 1999 (was a /35 back then, now a /29 reserved)
• Jisc can provide you an IPv6 prefix for your organisation on request
• Default assignment to a Janet-connected site is a /48
• Many other Jisc services support IPv6, e.g.,
• eduroam RADIUS peerings can run over IPv6
• .ac.uk nameservers support IPv6 transport
• The Jisc secondary DNS nameserver service supports IPv6

7. 7
Where might I deploy IPv6 first in my network?
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
You don’t need to do everything on day one
• R&E deployments to date have started in one of the following areas
• Public facing services, particularly web, but also email (MX) and DNS
• Campus WiFi (eduroam)
• Computer science department, labs, etc.
• Computing service
• Science DMZ
• You still need to enable your campus backbone, edge security platforms, and monitoring and
management systems, but you can focus on exposing IPv6 to users at limited points

8. 8
How should I deploy IPv6?
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
A multiphase project
• Planning
• Acquiring address space, forming address plans, training, survey inventory, review security
• Ensuring IPv6 requirements in procurements (even if not turning IPv6 on yet)
• You may choose to plan IPv6 differently to IPv4
• Piloting / testing
• Form a test plan, deploy a testbed, perhaps connect testbed directly to access router
• Production
• Choose a deployment target (public services, WiFi, etc.), confirm dual-stack approach
• Build support from the core; connectivity, firewalling, backbone, DNS (avoid literal addresses)
• Ensure your monitoring and management tools work with IPv6
• Then turn on IPv6 in the selected edge network (router advertisements, etc.)
• Ongoing build-out and enhancement

9. 9
What are the important considerations?
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
Some things to keep in focus early on
• Security
• IPv6 implications on your security policies; new considerations, and those with IPv4 parallels
• Applying policy consistently; don’t let IPv6 be a back door
• Address planning
• Building a new plan, or augmenting the IPv4 plan?
• Host configuration
• SLAAC or DHCPv6?
• How to deal with IPv6 Privacy Addresses
• Being comfortable with protocol differences, e.g., neighbour discovery protocol
• Managing one network, not two
• Pick management and monitoring tools that simplify your job

10. 10
Sources of help?
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
What’s out there?
• Jisc material:
• IPv6 service page: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/ipv6
• Advice and guidance page: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/how-to-begin-an-ipv6-deployment
• Janet IPv6 Technical Guide: https://repository.jisc.ac.uk/8349/1/janet-ipv6-technical-guide.pdf
• Training: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/training/ipv6-fundamentals
• And we’re happy to spend time chatting with you, just ask
• JiscMail mail ipv6-users@jiscmail.ac.uk list:
• Subscribe here - https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=IPV6-USERS
• Other sources:
• UK IPv6 Council: https://www.ipv6.org.uk/
• UKNOF: https://www.uknof.org.uk/- many talks on IPv6 and other interesting topics
• Procurement : https://www.ripe.net/publications/docs/ripe-554 (currently under revision)

11. 11
When can I remove IPv4?
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
Simplifying your IPv6 deployment longer term
• The prudent deployment approach is currently dual-stack
• There are tools that support IPv6-only devices accessing IPv4-only content:
• NAT64/DNS64/464XLAT
• There are open source and public implementations available for testing
• The question then becomes ‘where can I remove IPv4’?
• Internal management network? (Facebook is 100% IPv6 internally, for example)
• Campus WiFi?
• Hall of residence network?
• Research communities, e.g., the CERN experiments (WLCG) are heading this way
• More on this at Networkshop on 27-29 April (next week!)

12. 12
IPv6 in action!
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
Some examples of IPv6 in use…
• Testing IPv6 connectivity / configuration:
• For example - https://test-ipv6.com/
• Or test a specific domain: https://ip6.nl/
• IPv6 configuration on Mac / Linux
• Examples of presenter laptop and the Jisc perfSONAR measurement point
• A look at CentOS7 system ps-slough-10g.ja.net via CLI/ssh
• IPv6 performance measurement
• The UK GridPP (particle physics research) perfSONAR mesh
• https://psmad.opensciencegrid.org/maddash-
webui/index.cgi?dashboard=UK%20Mesh%20Config

13. 13
Rounding up
IPv6 Tech 2 Tech
Some key takeaways
• IPv6 adoption continues to grow in ISP and content provider networks
• The UK is at 35% overall, the Janet community is under 10%
• There are business drivers you should be able to use to justify deployment
• Teaching and research, robust access to your services, security in ‘IPv4 only’ networks
• Jisc provides you with native IPv6 connectivity as part of your Janet IP connection service
• And can provide you with an IPv6 prefix to use (default /48 in size)
• Ensure you are procuring IPv6 capability now, even if not turning it on yet
• Choose a focused initial deployment, e.g., public facing web services, or campus WiFi

14. Any questions?
Contact me at tim.chown@jisc.ac.uk