IPv6 Deployment in Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)
RFC 5963

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Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                       R. Gagliano
Request for Comments: 5963                                 Cisco Systems
Category: Informational                                      August 2010
ISSN: 2070-1721

           IPv6 Deployment in Internet Exchange Points (IXPs)

Abstract

   This document provides guidance on IPv6 deployment in Internet
   Exchange Points (IXPs).  It includes information regarding the switch
   fabric configuration, the addressing plan and general organizational
   tasks that need to be performed.  IXPs are mainly a Layer 2
   infrastructure, and, in many cases, the best recommendations suggest
   that the IPv6 data, control, and management plane should not be
   handled differently than in IPv4.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
   (IETF).  It represents the consensus of the IETF community.  It has
   received public review and has been approved for publication by the
   Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.

   Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
   and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
   http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc5963.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2010 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
   document authors.  All rights reserved.

   This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
   Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
   (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents
   carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
   to this document.  Code Components extracted from this document must
   include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
   the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
   described in the Simplified BSD License.

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RFC 5963                      IPv6 in IXPs                   August 2010

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................2
   2. Switch Fabric Configuration .....................................2
   3. Addressing Plan .................................................3
   4. Multicast IPv6 ..................................................5
      4.1. Multicast Support and Monitoring for Neighbor
           Discovery at an IXP ........................................6
      4.2. IPv6 Multicast Traffic Exchange at an IXP ..................6
   5. Reverse DNS .....................................................7
   6. Route-Server ....................................................7
   7. External and Internal Support ...................................7
   8. IXP Policies and IPv6 ...........................................8
   9. Security Considerations .........................................8
   10. Acknowledgements ...............................................8
   11. Informative References .........................................8

1.  Introduction

   Most Internet Exchange Points (IXPs) work at the Layer 2 level,
   making the adoption of IPv6 an easy task.  However, IXPs normally
   implement additional services such as statistics, route servers,
   looking glasses, and broadcast controls that may be impacted by the
   implementation of IPv6.  This document clarifies the impact of IPv6
   on a new or an existing IXP.  The document assumes an Ethernet switch
   fabric, although other Layer 2 configurations could be deployed.

2.  Switch Fabric Configuration

   An Ethernet-based IXP switch fabric implements IPv6 over Ethernet as
   described in [RFC2464] .  Therefore, the switching of IPv6 traffic
   happens in the same way as in IPv4.  However, some management
   functions (such as switch management, SNMP (Simple Network Management
   Protocol) [RFC3411] support, or flow analysis exportation) may
   require IPv6 as an underlying layer, and this should be assessed by
   the IXP operator.

   There are two common configurations of IXP switch ports to support
   IPv6:

   1.  dual-stack LAN (Local Area Network): when both IPv4 and IPv6
       traffic share a common LAN.  No extra configuration is required
       in the switch.

   2.  independent VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network)[IEEE.P802-1Q.1998]:
       when an IXP logically separates IPv4 and IPv6 traffic in
       different VLANs.

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RFC 5963                      IPv6 in IXPs                   August 2010

   In both configurations, IPv6 and IPv4 traffic can either share a
   common physical port or use independent physical ports.  The use of