In order to complete an IPv6 deployment that is equivalent to the existing IPv4 infrastructure, a number of missing ‘pieces’ in the IPv6 deployment need to be upgraded to support IPv6. Unfortunately, this lack of support applies to every level of the deployment, from hardware to network services and applications. This section therefore provides a summary of the outstanding network components that need to be enabled with IPv6 or circumvented to allow the campus deployment process to continue.

In terms of hardware, the lack of IPv6 support on the BlackDiamond equipment was the most significant problem that we faced. This was largely overcome through the use of available Cisco and Juniper equipment to perform L3 routing and upgrades in the BlackDiamond 10k firmware. As a result, this problem has largely now been overcome.

The core services, DNS and DCHPv6 are an essential part of the IPv6 deployment process and as such the lack of proper DHCPv6 represents a significant problem. IPv6 enabled DNS deployment is now underway within the University but the lack of widespread DHCPv6 support cannot be overcome at this time. This should again ‘fix’ itself as more implementations become available and proper support is incorporated into more products over time but at present, this represents perhaps the most significant immediate issue to IPv6 deployment at Lancaster.

Other significant issues include the lack of IPv6 support in other important network services and software. This level of support is mixed but perhaps the most pressing issue is the lack of proper IPv6 support in mainstream Microsoft products such as MS Exchange and Active Directory. In general, while the level of IPv6 support is quite solid in Microsoft Operation Systems, the applications and services that run across them are much less so. Other issues include the lack of file sharing / NFS support and the lack of IPv6 support in web caching software such as Squid among others.