It was not that long ago that whenever I read an article about IPv6, it usually discussed how the IPv4 Address depletion in other countries. At that time, the adoption of IPv6 was coming from other countries that where the v4 address space was depleted, the US Government, or Service Provider. Well fast forward only a few years and you can include Enterprise Networks in that mix.

Driving this IPv6 train for enterprise networks is wireless technology and the enabling by-product, BYOD. Wireless technology, in particular, Wi-Fi has grown from a toy to a requirement in most businesses today. We have moved from 802.11b which gave you a max datarate of a paltry 11Mbps to 802.11n to a max datarate of 450Mbps if you currently deploy the Aironet 3600 Access Point that supports 4x4 MIMO; if not, it’s a max datarate of 300Mbps. Never mind the fact that we will soon see the Wave 1 version of 802.11ac will have a datarate of 1.3Gbps and Oh BTW, Wave 2 promises a scorching datarate of 6.9Gbps!

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Tags: 802.11, access point, Aironet, bring your own device, byod, Enterprise, government, ipv4, IPv6, mbps, mimo, network, networking, Service Provider, wireless, wireless technology

What’s new and exciting with EIGRP (Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol)? Actually, lots…  First a bit a background on EIGRP.

EIGRP is an advanced distance vector routing protocol used extensively by enterprise customers.  It is very popular because it is simple to deploy and support. Some major attributes are:

• EIGRP does not mandate many network design requirements and is therefore perceived as “forgiving” and “flexible”.  For example, EIGRP does not require support for multiple routing sub-domains or Areas.
• While route summarization is a recommended best practice to minimize route table size, it is optional with EIGRP.
• EIGRP can scale to support thousands of routers in a Hub and Spoke configuration.  The Hub and Spoke design is especially popular in WAN networks.

For additional information on EIGRP, please click here.  There is also a great BLOG that compares EIGRP and OSPF that I think you will find informative and is posted here.

While EIGRP has a large customer following, some customers have hesitated because of concerns of EIGRP being “proprietary”, which would prevent them from multi-vendor network support.  In some cases this has caused customers to design their networks to limit usage of EIGRP, even though they would like to deploy it ubiquitously.  One result has been non-optimal network design and traffic flow, resulting from multiple IGP (Interior Gateway Protocol) redistribution points.

That brings me back to what is new and exciting with EIGRP. Read More »

Tags: EIGRP, Enhanced Interior Gateway Protocol, ietf, ietf working group, IGP, Interior Gateway Protocol, ipv4, IPv6, IPv6 deployment, OSPF, WAN, WAN networks

The Global Certification Team is proud to announce that the Cisco Aggregate Services Routers (ASR) 9000 series have completed USGv6 Certification on software version 4.2.1 or later, with USGv6 SMU.  The details of the certification can be found at https://www.iol.unh.edu/services/testing/ipv6/usgv6tested.php?company=7&type=Router.

The Cisco ASR 9000 system incorporates innovative technologies such as Cisco Network Virtualization (nV) technology, which intelligently blends the edge, aggregation, and access points to simplify operation and accelerate IPv6 services. Two new nV enabled platforms provide additional flexibility and support to optimize service delivery.  More information can be found at Cisco.com

Get up to the minute updates on Cisco product certifications from the official GCT twitter, @CiscoCertTeam!

Tags: aggregated, asr 9000, ASR9000, certifications, IPv6, NIST, router, services, USGv6

My last post was all about finding IPv6 prefixes on the IPv6 Internet. I think the next natural question is “What about IPv6 traffic?” or more specifically, “What about IPv6 traffic on my network?” In this post, I’ll talk about some network tools, or instrumentation, that can be used to find and measure IPv6 traffic that is out on your network. Network instrumentation is going to be important whether you plan to integrate IPv6 into your network or not. “What?” you might ask, “why is instrumenting my network to detect IPv6 important if I’m not going to run IPv6 in my network?”

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Tags: ACLs used to identify IPv6, Cisco Services, IDS/IPS for IPv6 identification, IPv6, IPv6 discovery with QoS policy, IPv6 on Switching, IPv6 Traffic, netflow, SNMP MIB

Last week my colleagues and I were excited to deliver a 4-hour lab on IPv6 Security at Cisco Live London 2013. The training enabled students to correctly identify, classify, and deter or prevent the nefarious IPv6-specific behaviors. They did so by configuring network threat defense, countermeasures, and controls that were implemented and deployed on infrastructure devices as well as validate their effectiveness. Some of the nefarious behaviors included IPv6 spoofing, using IPv6 in IPv4 tunneling to bypass, and DDoS using IPv6 packets. This IPv6 security training was first delivered at Cisco Live USA 2012, where 19 students participated in the class. At Cisco Live London, we welcomed 21 Cisco Customers, giving them access to our lab-hosted equipment to practice and complete tasks covered during class. What follows are some key observations about our training in London as compared to our training in the U.S.: Read More »

Tags: Cisco Live London, IPv6, IPv6-security, security