[v6ops] Turning on IPv6 Routers

[Fred Baker <[e-mail]>]

I write as co-chair of v6ops, under our charter element "comment to other working groups when it seems appropriate". 

One outcome from at least v6ops and I think a couple of other WGs and RGs this week - may I suggest a change to Node Requirements and a corresponding change to the IPv6 Ready Logo?

General Category: "Good grief, it's 2017 for goodness' sake!"

Something that would be helpful in IPv6 deployment would be to turn IPv6 on by default in residential routers. Note that this is not the general case. I can think of routers, whose vendors have C's and J's, and probably H's, in their names, whose default configuration is as an Internet Host. The following would apply to devices that are configured by default as an IP router with routing enabled.

Please add a requirement of the general form:

"If IPv4 router operation is enabled by default, enable IPv6 router operation by default."

Note that this is not as simple as it might sound. There are at least three configurations that must be allowed for upstream: bridging the ISP downstream and CPE downstream LANs, Address allocation via DHCP IA_NA, and address allocation via SLAAC, and on the CPE downstream LAN(s), address allocation via DHCP IA_NA and SLAAC. BBF TR-124 gives a flowchart for this or RFC 7084 defines the algorithms. The implementation is going to have to enable all three, see which works, and act accordingly.

There may also be considerations for PPPOE: if IPv4 is configured for PPPOE, turn it on for IPv6.

Good Grief. This is 2017 for goodness' sake, and there are implementations that turn IPv6 on by default and work. Do it. Just do it.