implementing IPv6 in an ISP network, case study and lessons learned - Amos Rosenboim

Oasis Communication Technologies


Agenda• IPv6@oasis - background

• Case studies:

• The early days – IGLD (RIP)

• Going Global – PCCW Global

• End to end with no end – Xfone 018

• What have we learned ?

• Technical.• Non technical.


Oasis is a systems integrator specializing in xSP networks.

We are in business since 2006. Founded by Internet Gold Veterans.

IPv6 is both a personal passion (past), as well as a business differentiator (present).

We spend time and money training our staff and staying up to date.

I like IPv6 because it reminds me of the early internet days

IPv6@oasis


Back at 2003 a Cisco PLM told me how my fridge is going to refill itself really soon.

What should we do ? we asked Start dual stack deployment now so you are ready for the massive IPv6 wave

that is coming really really soon.

And so we did – we established a small IPv6 island within our network

L2TP tunnel switching to a dedicated router

IPv6 routing to 2-3 additional routers and 1 Linux server

The longest task was subneting the /32 assignment

Case studies - IGLD


In about a week we were able to ping the IPv6 internet, and even watch the turtle dance.

When we looked asides we saw no one, even when we looked up there was not a lot to see.

But there were rumors about deployments in APAC.

What we did not do:Plan

Deploy IPv6 based services (DNS, Mail etc’).

Case studies - IGLD


PCCW Global is the International arm of PCCW (the incumbent player in HKG).The company operates a network that spans more than 40 countries, with ~ 70 POPs.

Provides Internet transit service, MPLS VPNs, as well as voice and video services.

During late 2007 the company’s management decided that full IPv6 support is required by 2010.

First product to support the new protocol should be internet transit.

I was assigned to lead the project from an engineering perspective and propose deployment plan.

I was the most experienced with IPv6, I already configured it on 3 routers in some small ISP in Israel, and I was a contractor

Case studies – PCCW Global


My initial idea was to dual stack the entire network – we don’t make any compromises, we go for the ultimate solution right?

Looking at the inventory I realized that

85% of our routers are running old code that supports IPv6 only in theory.

About 60% of our deployed HW cannot forward IPv6 in HW.

As it takes about 3 months to get maintenance approvals per router we’ll be ready by 2022 or so.

There were some other minor issues such as: do this on the production network, but don’t affect any customers/peers etc’

It was obvious we need a plan B.Thank god for islands.




Great minds think the same – It appears that the IETF actually standardized my design.

They actually made a better job than I did

It’s called 6PE.We went ahead with the following actions:

IPv6 RIR allocation request.

Addressing design – both guidelines and actual sub netting.

MP-BGP design.

This IPv6 free core is fundamentally different than the IPv4 concept they were using.Only MPLS in the core.

Much easier on the routers, less easy for NOC technicians and engineers.Think about traceroute interpretation with icmpv6 tunneling .



We established as much IPv6 peering as we could, but we also required some transit

We started offering IPv6 transit services.Initially all L3 functions were performed on the dedicated 6PE routers

After gaining some experience these routers were re purposed as IPv6 BGP RRs

We started training our staffExternal courses for background – only for a limited set of staff – budgetary constraints.

Internal training specific to our deployment model for all relevant staff.

A lot of OTJT

We worked with our product team colleagues to establish the offering guidelines.They were violated by sales about 10 minutes after they were published.

Many non standard customizations to support IPv6 connectivity for various customers.



We established as much IPv6 peering as we could, but we also required some transit

We started offering IPv6 transit services.Initially all L3 functions were performed on the dedicated 6PE routers

After gaining some experience these routers were re purposed as IPv6 BGP RRs

We started training our staffExternal courses for background – only for a limited set of staff – budgetary constraints.

Internal training specific to our deployment model for all relevant staff.

A lot of OTJT

We worked with our product team colleagues to establish the offering guidelines.They were violated by sales about 10 minutes after they were published.

Many non standard customizations to support IPv6 connectivity for various customers.



Xfone 018 is a valued Oasis customer since 2008.

Oasis has built the Xfone ISP network which also carries all of their VOIP traffic.

The network is built using Juniper networks HW .

Oasis is also managing the network on a daily basis in an outsourcing model.

IPv6 project at Xfone started out of personal interest within Oasis but was soon embraced and encouraged by Xfone management.

Case studies – Xfone 018




Xfone deployment details: 2a02:ed0::/32 assigned by RIPE

2a02:ed0::/34 Initial pool2a02:ed0:4000::/34 reserved 2a02:ed0:8000::/34 reserved 2a02:ed0:c000::/34 reserved

Customers are assigned /56 by default, /48 per request .

Any router to router or LAN segment are assigned a /64, loopbacks are /128.

Separation between INFRA address space to CUST address space.

OSPFv3 as IGP, MP-BGP for customer and internet routes.

ND RA + DHCPv6 PD for broadband users.

Control over IPv6 subscribers through RADIUS.

Dual stack DNS servers and mail server.

Roughly 600 active users.



Many deployment options, use the one that addresses your biggest issues use others ad hoc.

Addressing design is tricky, BCPs change frequently.How to subnet my allocation ? - on nibble boundries

What prefix length to assign ?

The core is easy.Access is messy.

Address assignment is challenging, RA alone doesn’t work as it has no way to assign additional configuration parameters.

DHCPv6 is getting to be OK, we are almost there.

Many software bugs:

Client ignores prefix in RA if it’s not a /64.

DHCPv6 implementation only handle PD DHCP requests.

Data center is surprisingly good, if you choose the right vendors.Security devices performance degrade, test it as I didn’t.

Lessons learned so far - technical


The number one problem for IPv6 adoption is lack of content.There is no justification for this, for a content provider it’s pretty easy to et least experiment with

ipv6.

Global content providers (e.g Google, Facebook, Yahoo) have been a major force behind IPv6 in recent years, and are making a huge leap forward today.

Israeli content providers?

The second biggest issues is customer equipment readiness:PCs with old OS.

Home routers – there are tens of thousands of unmanaged devices already deployed.

Mobile phones.

Globally governments have been a driving force for IPv6, in Israel the government techs and regulators are very silent about it .

Lessons learned so far -Non technical


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Date post:	07-Nov-2014
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implementing IPv6 in an ISP network, case study and lessons learned - Amos Rosenboim

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