Release 12.2(8)T or later releases, IS-IS support for IPv6 implements single topology IPv6 IS-IS functionality based on IETF IS-IS working group draft draft-ietf-isis-ipv6 [Hop03]. A single shortest path first (SPF) per level is used to compute OSI, IPv4 (if configured) and IPv6 routes. The use of a single SPF means that both IPv4 IS-IS and IPv6 IS-IS routing protocols must share a common network topology. To use IS-IS for IPv4 and IPv6 routing, any interface configured for IPv4 IS-IS must also be configured for IPv6 IS-IS, and vice versa. All routers within an IS-IS area (Level 1 routing) or domain (Level 2 routing) must also support the same set of address families: IPv4 only, IPv6 only, or both IPv4 and IPv6.

Beginning with release Cisco IOS Release 12.2(15)T, Cisco IOS Release 12.2(18)S and Cisco IOS Release 12.3(1)M, IS-IS support for IPv6 is enhanced to also support multitopology IPv6 support as defined in IETF IS-IS WG draft-ietf-isis-wg-multi-topology.txt [PSS05]. Multitopology IPv6 IS-IS support uses multiple SPFs to compute routes and removes the restriction that all interfaces must support all configured address families and that all routers in an IS-IS area or domain must support the same set of address families.

The following IS-IS router configuration commands are specific to IPv4 and are not supported by, or have any effect on, IPv6 IS-IS:

mpls
traffic-share

If you are using IS-IS single topology support for IPv6, IPv4, or both IPv6 and IPv4, you may configure both IPv6 and IPv4 on an IS-IS interface for Level 1, Level 2, or both Level 1 and Level 2. However, if both IPv6 and IPv4 are configured on the same interface, they must be running the same IS-IS level. That is, IPv4 cannot be configured to run on IS-IS Level 1 only on a specified Ethernet interface while IPv6 is configured to run IS-IS Level 2 only on the same Ethernet interface.