IPv6 Project - Deployment of IPv6 Infrastructure and Services

Introduction

SingAREN provides Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) transit service to the R&E community in Singapore. SingAREN connects to the IPv6 internet via Abilene network, Korea 6Bone (IPv6 research backbone) and Korea 6NGIX (IPv6 Next Generation Internet Exchange). Locally, various R&E institutes are connected to SingAREN IPv6 router via 6over4 tunnels.

The SingAREN IPv6 Project involves the deployment of an IPv6 exchange - Singapore IPv6 Internet eXchange (SIX). This is a layer 2 infrastructure located in Singapore which is set up to allow R&E entities and domestic industry partners to interconnect and access IPv6 internet connectivity. SingAREN, being a pTLA (pseudo Top Level Aggregator), will allocate IPv6 addresses to participating nodes. Existing IPv6 tunneled nodes will migrate to native IPv6 connection at SIX. New IPv6 nodes interconnect at SIX and obtain IPv6 connection via tunneling or direct IPv6 connection. In this way, R&E entities and industry partners can participate and contribute to the development, deployment and testing of IPv6 technologies and solutions in Singapore.

Objective

The objectives of the project are as follow:

• To provide native IPv6 internet connectivity and service to the IPv6 community by deploying an IPv6 exchange point
• To gain IPv6 deployment experience by deploying an IPv6 infrastructure and services
• To design and implement IPv6 transition service for the integration of IPv4 and IPv6 networks
• To develop an IPv6 deployment model for campus network and service provider
  

Steering committee [v6-steercomm@singaren.net.sg]

The steering committee consists of the following staff:

Prof Lawrence Wong, Director, SingAREN
Prof A. L. Ananda, Associate, SingAREN
Dr Winston Seah, Associate, SingAREN
Roland Yeo, Assistant Director, SingAREN

Project team [v6-project@singaren.net.sg]

The project team consists of the following staff:

Kerk Chun Sing, Network Engineer, NUS Computer Centre
Pua Chin Kok, Network Engineer, SingAREN
Affandi Indraji, Network Engineer, SingAREN
Tan Kim Chuan, BII-trainee, BII
Adrian Chow, Engineer, ICR

Deliverables

The following are the project deliverables:

• To deploy an IPv6 exchange point;
• To deploy an IPv6 network and services;
• To implement IPv6 transition service to extend the IPv6 service to the IPv4 community;
• To develop and document an IPv6 deployment model for campus network and service provider.

Project plan

a) Design and set up of IPv6 Internet Exchange

An IPv6 Internet Exchange Point (SIX – Singapore Internet Exchange) will be set up. This is to provide IPv6 connectivity to the IPv6 internet and to interconnect other IPv6 nodes. Existing IPv6 nodes like ICR and SOC are currently connected to SingAREN (and to the IPv6 internet) via IPv6-over-IPv4 tunnel. They will be migrated to a native IPv6 connection at the SIX. New IPv6 nodes will interconnect at the SIX and obtain IPv6 connection via tunneling or direct IPv6 connection. SingAREN will assign IPv6 address to these participating nodes.

Other members can make use of SIX to participate and contribute to the development, deployment and testing of IPv6 technologies and solutions.

Figure 1 - Singapore IPv6 Internet Exchange Point (SIX)

 

b) Design and set up of NUS IPv6 network

An IPv6 network will be set up at the edge of NUS network. A dual-stack router will be deployed at the edge of this IPv6 network to provide connectivity to the both the Internet & the IPv6 Internet. This will be achieved by connecting the edge router to both NUS core router and SingAREN IPv6 router at the SIX. A DNS server that supports both IPv4 and IPv6 name resolution will be deployed within the IPv6 network. In addition, other IPv6 services like FTP, web and proxy service will also be set up on the IPv6 network to serve the IPv6 community. This means that other IPv6 nodes that interconnect at SIX can obtain these services in addition to their access to the IPv6 internet.

Figure 2 - Deployment of IPv6 network and services

c) To design, implement IPv6 transition service for intercommunication of IPv4 and IPv6 networks

The project team will investigate and deploy the transition strategies to provide connectivity between IPv4 and IPv6 network. In this way, IPv6 service can be extended to the NUS community

• A tunnel broker will be deployed to provide on-demand automatically-created IPv4-over IPv6 tunnels from the hosts to the router. In this way, IPv4 hosts can obtain connection to the IPv6 internet.
  
• Deploying dual-stack network to allow easy transition to the IPv4 network while seamlessly integrate into the IPv4 network.
  
• Investigate the feasibility of deploying an IPv6-only network with Network Address Translation-Protocol Translation (NAT-PT)

d) To develop an IPv6 deployment model for enterprise network and service provider network

The project team will develop and document a working IPv6 deployment model each for the enterprise network and the service provider. It will address the deployment strategy which encompasses addressing, routing and network management issues, etc.

At the same time, upon the completion of part a) to c), the project team will launch the service to both the SIX and the NUSnet community.