As discussed briefly in the introduction, IPv6 has been used within the Computing Department at Lancaster University since around 1995 -1997. While this was primarily used as a research tool, it was also available both in the lab and office networks and over the departmental wireless network on a semi-production basis. The address space used for this was a subnet of the university prefix allocated to R&D activities. External connectivity was provided via configured tunnels to the 6Bone and on to other interested UK parties, including ULCC, UCL and the University of Southampton. This was coordinated under the Bermuda2 collaboration (www.ipv6.ac.uk/bermuda2/).

This deployment was still largely in place prior to the formal deployment of IPv6 across the University campus and so it is anticipated that when this occurs, the configured tunnels will be closed and the renumbering to production addresses (where appropriate) will take place.

At the outset of this project, the regional MAN, C&NLMAN (Cumbria & North Lancashire MAN) (http://www.canlman.net.uk/), and the University itself were both IPv4-only and the JANET Access Point had yet to be upgraded. As such, the most obvious IPv6 deployment approach was for it to begin at the innermost point in the network and be rolled-out to the edge. This gives us quite an interesting perspective to IPv6 deployment to see the progress from core to edge.

The deployment of IPv6 in the University campus was seen by ISS as part of a much larger network upgrade process moving away from a legacy ‘flat’ (ATM) network to a hierarchical subnet-based layout using VPNs. As such, the aim is that IPv6 deployment will ultimately be deployed in parallel to the new (IPv4) network giving a modern dual stack layout.