IPv6 Address Planning

Preface

It’s an exciting and somewhat daunting time to be a network engineer. We’re living and working through an era of challenging but essential change in our chosen field. Think of the traditional protocols and operational practices that many of us cut our professional teeth on. They’ve helped deliver the Internet and sustained its initial period of unprecedented growth and success. But now they’re rapidly approaching the limits of their ability to enable the next critical stage of Internet and network evolution.

Virtualization, cloud computing, SDN, mobile devices, the Internet of Things—all of these trends are laying bare the weaknesses of traditional networking technology. Such trends would seem to simultaneously promise and demand limitless network scale and unprecedented business agility, but from the same old tubes and wires and the quaint rules that bind them together. You can almost hear Scotty inveighing, “She canna’ take anymore, Captain!”

Unless you’re Rip (or, perhaps, rIP) Van Winkle, none of these weaknesses is as familiar as the limited and rapidly dwindling supply of IPv4 addresses. Likely just as familiar is the remedy for this shortage, IPv6.


Who Should Read This Book

I’ve written this book with network architects, engineers and administrators for enterprises in mind. For practical examples, I’ve tried to stick with scenarios and network designs that will be familiar to enterprise IT personnel. However, much of the material presented should be suitable to anyone ...