The IPv6 Forum and the IPv6 Ready Logo Program

1 November 2011 by 2 Comments

I’m reading this blog post over on blogs.cisco.com more because I had not seen this “IPV6 Ready Logo Phase 2 (Gold)” than because I care about the firmware upgrade for the Linksys. What is this IPv6 Ready Logo Phase 2 (Gold) thing all about?

The IPv6 Ready Logo program comes from the The IPv6 Forum, which has IPv6 logos for all things IPv6.

  • IPv6 Ready – The IPv6 Ready Logo Committee mission is to define the test specifications for IPv6 conformance and interoperability testing, to provide access to self-test tools and to deliver the IPv6 Ready Logo.  With two phases, Phase 1 (Silver) and Phase 2 (Gold), and subsets of protocols SIP, IPSEC, DHCP, SNMP and DNS.
  • IPv6 Enabled – IPv6 Enabled Logo program objective is to accelerate deployment of IPv6. The goal of this program is to increase user confidence by demonstrating that IPv6 is available now and is ready to be used.
  • IPv6 Education – The prime objective of this Program is to encourage and accelerate the education on IPv6 and promote thereby swifter adoption of IPv6 in the education curriculum and programs of the universities, research institutes, vendors and training specialists.
  • IPv6 Hall of Fame – The IPv6 Forum has introduced the ISP Enabled Program which has attracted about 100 ISPs over the last 12 months.From the 8700 organisations worldwide that have received IPv6 prefixes from the IP registries, some 50% have announced their prefixes on the routing table. However only a fraction of these have offered IPv6 service to their customers. World IPv6 Day has demonstrated that with IPv6 enabled service, the expected great impact could have happened. It is quite normal that ISPs would need more time to enable IPv6 service after the central IAN IP address depletion in February 2011.
  • Boundv6 – The Boundv6 Program is a global effort led by the IPv6 Forum involving laboratories, service providers and equipment manufacturers with the following goal: To create a permanent multi-vendor network environment connecting approved laboratories where the community can test IPv6 enabled applications and devices in meaningful test scenarios.
There seems to be quite a list of sites and vendors that are participating in this Logo program from looking at the IPv6 Forum page for the IPv6 Ready program. Phase 1 (Silver) is being phased out for the new Phase 2 (Gold).  The Phase-1 test coverage includes approximately 170 tests. More information can be found at the Phase 1 About Page.  There is a process for submittal and approval to earn the IPv6 Ready Logo as well as the results being published for review.

IPv6 Enabled websites and ISPs seem to be sporting this logo to show off the approval of the IPv6 forum as well.  The IPv6 Enabled Logo program consists of two logo sub-programs: the IPv6 Enabled WWW Logo Program and the IPv6 Enabled ISP Logo Program.

IPv6 Education could be the most important. Engineers really need to be coming up to speed on this protocol as there is going to be a real push for certified people that understand and can operate IPv6 networks. After earning a passing grade there are many Cisco certifications that allow you to apply for these IPv6 Education Logos.  They have a FAQ over at the Cisco Learning Network that talks about IPv6 Education Logo for Cisco certs and the IPv6 Forum Certified Engineer logo.

If you are looking for IPv6 service provider, a good place to start would be with the ones that have earned the IPv6 Hall of Fame Logo.

Boundv6 is looking to try and bind vendors and service providers with laboratories to keep a running test of IPv6. That’s a grand idea that hopefully will last and can keep the future of IPv6 and the new age of the Internet connected and interoperable.

All in all, it seems like a good effort from the IPv6 Forum and worth taking a look at if you are interested in IPv6.  Moving forward with IPv6 enabled networks, we all will need to be interested if we stay want to stay employed in this industry. Although, I have yet to work in a place that IPv6 has even been mentioned. Maybe that just says something about the places I work, hmmmmmm maybe I should think about that…

Filed Under: Blogs, IPv6 Tagged With: , ,
About Garry Baker

"Keep it simple. When in doubt during design, choose the simplest
solution." - RFC1958 On Twitter @networkdongle

  • http://twitter.com/ioshints ioshints

    Just wanted to mention that the IPv6 Ready program covers primarily host functions. Using it for networking devices (routers, switches, firewalls) is a bit misleading – every decent networking device should be able to meet all host requirements.

    RIPE-501 (and RIPE-501bis once it gets out of the door) offer a more comprehensive coverage of networking devices (although without test bed scenarios).

    Ivan

    • http://networkdongle.wordpress.com Garry Baker

      IPv6 Ready Logo Phase-2 (Test Specifications and Test Tools) list several different tests and the specs for each…
      http://www.ipv6ready.org/?page=phase-2-tech-info

      There is also a U.S. DoD IPv6 program, now rolled up into their other product certification plans, not just a stand alone IPv6 test…
      From Wikipedia:
      “The DoD IPv6 Standards Profiles for IPv6 Capable Products (DoD IPv6 Profile) is the singular “IPv6 Capable” definition in DoD. It is a document that lists the six agreed upon product classes (Host, Router, Layer 3 Switch, Network Appliance, Security Device, and Advanced Server) and their corresponding standards (RFCs).” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DoD_IPv6_Product_Certification

      But they all share the same attribute, it is just going to be a framework to be reveiwed and understand if those tests meet YOUR requirments for YOUR desgin…