The European Organization for Nuclear Research(CERN) in Switzerland first started looking into IPv6 in 2001. In 2011 they got approval and three dedicated engineers to the project: one ne network engineer and two developers for their custom systems. The initial plan was to be finished by 2013, but instead it took until May 2014 for internal deployment to be completed.
CERN runs IPv4 and IPv6 in a dual stack environment for all of their internal machines. CERN uses DHCPv6 for address assignment, but must still use Router Advertisements (RAs) for assigning gateways and DNS resolvers to clients. This ensures all devices are accessible via both protocols. Problems encountered primarily centered around client support for DHCPv6.
Edoardo Martelli’s talk, entitled “IPv6 deployment at CERN” can be viewed at the RIPE68 site, and his slides are available for download.
CERN also publishes two other sets of IPv6 information:
- a current implementation plan and status for their IPv6 deployment.
- a site showing the IPv6 compliance of applications used in physics analysis
Please visit our IPv6 Case Studies page for more examples of IPv6 deployment. If you would like to get started with IPv6, please visit our IPv6 resources or begin with our “Start Here” page to help find resources most appropriate for your type of organization. If you have an IPv6 case study you think we should consider for inclusion on our site, please contact us – we are always looking for more!