This article provides information for those interested in benefitting from the experience of large organizations and academic institutions that have deployed dual-stack (which support both Internet Protocol version 6 [IPv6] and IPv4) or IPv6-only environments across multiple geographic locations and on wide-area networks, as well as smaller organizations at a single geographic location. The IPv6-only test network setup topic in the IPv6 Test Techniques article in the Testing section also provides information about deploying and testing IPv6-only environments.
Lessons learned and in many cases descriptions of the processes actually used while deploying dual-stack and IPv6-only environments may also be found in several of the individual presentations, papers, studies, publications, and articles referenced by the Overview of Lessons Learned Deploying IPv6 article in the General Information section. Links to pertinent parts of that article are provided below.
Note: If you are just starting to think about a deployment of IPv6 or are still in the early planning stages of a deployment of IPv6, please review the Before you Begin article in the Deployment section.
This Overview of Process article provides references to several discussions about deploying dual-stack or IPv6-only environments in four major categories:
1. Large Organizations' Process. This category provides references to the project management, planning, and deployment processes used by organizations in three subcategories:
(A) United States (US) Federal government organizations,
(B) foreign government organizations, and
(C) large private corporations.
2. Academic Community's Process. This category provides references to the project management, planning, and deployment processes used by colleges and universities.
3. Smaller Organizations' Process. This category provides references to the project management, planning, and deployment processes used by organizations with a single geographic location.
4. DREN's Process. This category discusses the project management, planning, and deployment processes used by the US Department of Defense (DoD) Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN) when it was a US DoD IPv6 Pilot network and an early adopter of IPv6.
1. Large Organizations' Process.
1.A United States (US) Federal government organizations
This presentation summarizes the evolution of the IPv6 deployment planning process in US Federal government organizations. The Chief Information Officers (CIO) Council Federal IPv6 Task Force website provides extensive requirements, planning guidance and status information, along with a calendar of upcoming current events for Federal organizations. See this IPv6 and IoT Points of Contact article in the General Information section for the address of the CIO Council Federal IPv6 Task Force website. The US Federal Government Organizations IPv6 Deployment article in the IPv6 and IoT Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section provides additional information about Federal organizations' IPv6 deployment status.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) plan for deploying IPv6 is summarized here, while the planning and deployment processes used earlier are described in their Government Empowering and Embracing the Kickoff of IPv6 (G.E.E.K.V.6) Invitation document and described in greater detail in slides 1-40 of their G.E.E.K.V.6 Day document. The management and planning process used by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) within the Federal Enterprise Architecture (FEA) framework are summarized here and described in more detail in their IPv6 Transition Plan, Version 3.00.
Some of the documents created during early US Federal organizations' IPv6 deployments include:
| Created By | Document Type |
|---|---|
| American Council for Technology-Industry Advisory Council (ACT-IAC) IPv6 Working Group |
Agency IPv6 work breakout structure (WBS) |
| CIO Council Federal IPv6 Task Force Key Documents and Resources page (authentication required) | Implementation Plan Template (authentication required) |
| IPv6 Integrated Project Team (IPT) Charter FINAL (authentication required) | |
| IPv6 Policy Template (FINAL_v2) (authentication required) | |
|
Energy Sciences Network (ESNet) |
top level IPv6 Implementation Checklist |
|
Federal IPv6 Inter-Agency Working Group (IAWG) |
Agency IPv6 checklist |
|
|
Agency IPv6 deployment timeline |
| National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) |
management checklist for dual-stack deployment (see Note 1 below) |
| VA | |
| IPv6 Transition Plan Components | |
|
|
Network Address Plan (draft) |
|
VA, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Social Security Administration (SSA) |
|
|
VA |
Pilot Selection Process |
Note 1: Before using the Readiness Tracking Template portion of that checklist, please read the accompanying Readiness Tool description and try to answer the 8 questions asked there.
As was mentioned above, lessons learned and in many cases descriptions of the processes actually used while deploying dual-stack and IPv6-only environments may also be found in several of the individual presentations, papers, studies, publications, and articles referenced by Part 1 United States (US) Department of Defense (DoD) Organizations and Part 2 Other US Federal Government Organizations in the Overview of Lessons Learned Deploying IPv6 article in the General Information section.
1.B Foreign Government Organizations
Example Enterprise Transition Plans, describing how organizations in Canada, Europe, Asia, Australia and other countries planned to deploy IPv6 are available in Part 4 International organizations and organizations outside the United States of the IPv6 and IoT Policy, Guidance, and Best Practices article in the General Information section.
A broad overview of the enterprise-level deployment process used by the Australian IPv6 for e-Business Project to deploy IPv6 is available here. Other Australian companies shared lessons learned while deploying dual-stack environments in several of the individual presentations, papers, studies, publications, and articles referenced by Part 1.9 Australian IPv6 community in the Overview of Lessons Learned Deploying IPv6 article in the General Information section.
As was mentioned above, lessons learned and in many cases descriptions of the processes actually used while deploying dual-stack and IPv6-only environments may also be found in several of the individual presentations, papers, studies, publications, and articles referenced by Part 1.8 European and Asian IPv6 Communities in the Overview of Lessons Learned Deploying IPv6 article in the General Information section.
1.C Large Private Corporations
The deployment and application migration processes used by Bechtel are described here and at greater length here (used with permission). The planning and deployment processes used by Cisco are described in this paper and their recommended planning processes are described in this paper. The planning and deployment processes used by Google are described in this presentation and paper. The planning and deployment processes used by International Business Machines (IBM) are described in this article (video available here).
As was mentioned above, lessons learned and in many cases descriptions of the processes actually used while deploying dual-stack and IPv6-only environments may also be found in several of the individual presentations, papers, studies, publications, and articles by Google, Microsoft, Oracle, and other corporations referenced by Part 1.3 Networking Equipment Manufacturers and Customers, Part 1.4 IPv6 Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and Part 1.7 Non-commercial Organizations in the Overview of Lessons Learned Deploying IPv6 article in the General Information section. (Non-commercial organizations publish collections of articles from many individual sources, including large private corporations.)
2. Academic Community's Process.
This category provides references to the project management, planning, and deployment processes used by colleges and universities.
Although originally presented in 2004, the paper IPv6: A campus experience describing IPv6 deployment at the University of Southhampton, Highfield, Southhampton, UK, contains some checklists that are still useful. A campus IPv6 deployment at the Universiteit van Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, describes their process for Implementing IPv6 in an Organization in 2005. A white paper Transitioning to IPv6 by the EDUCAUSE Center For Analysis and Research describes the process followed by several Internet2 campuses. A 2014 paper Exploring Technical Deployments of IPv6 on University LANS is also available (skip past the first page).
As was mentioned above, lessons learned and in many cases descriptions of the processes actually used while deploying dual-stack and IPv6-only environments may also be found in several of the individual presentations, papers, studies, publications, and articles referenced by Part 1.5 Academic Community in the Overview of Lessons Learned Deploying IPv6 article in the General Information section.
3. Smaller Organizations' Process.
This category provides references to the management, planning, and deployment processes used by smaller organizations with a single geographic location.
The Canadian Internet Registration Authority (CIRA) provides some useful details of their IPv6 deployment process here. The process used by the Ars Technica web content provider to deploy IPv6 is typical of small businesses, as described in this paper. An example of a simple deployment process for a smaller business is provided by this article. A more detailed deployment process is described by the Enabling IPv6 in Microsoft Windows Application Servers article in the Infrastructure section. A very simple deployment process for the home and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) user is described by the IPv6 in the Home and Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) article in the Deployment section.
As was mentioned above, lessons learned and in many cases descriptions of the processes actually used while deploying dual-stack and IPv6-only environments may also be found in several of the individual presentations, papers, studies, publications, and articles referenced by Part 1.11 The Small Office/Home Office (SOHO) in the Overview of Lessons Learned Deploying IPv6 article in the General Information section.
4. DREN's Process.
The documents described in the Introduction and Implementation Details subcategories below were originally used as part of the enclave-level dual-stack planning and deployment process in 2003-2004. They were revised in 2009.
4.1 Introduction. These General Introduction and DREN Pilot Introduction articles provide a limited amount of historical perspective on DoD and other US Federal government organizations' efforts to deploy IPv6, together with a high level description of the DREN IPv6 Pilot deployment planning process.
4.2 Implementation Details: A top-level description of a plan based on the Carnegie-Mellon University (CMU) Software Engineering Institute (SEI) TransPlant technology transition methodology is described here. This is a description of a plan for the enclave-level engineering process based on TransPlant used to develop an IPv6 deployment plan. This is one example of such an enclave-level IPv6 deployment plan. References to additional CMU SEI TransPlant documents are given in the top-level and enclave-level DREN documents.
As was mentioned above, lessons learned and in many cases descriptions of the processes actually used while deploying dual-stack environments may also be found in several of the individual presentations referenced by Part 2 DREN IPv6 Pilot lessons learned summaries in the Overview of Lessons Learned Deploying IPv6 article in the General Information section.