Management and IPv6

Management and operation, administration, and maintenance (OAM) do not change for IPv6. The same techniques of LSP ping and trace that are applied to IPv4 are also applicable for IPv6. The operation paradigm is similar to the IPv4 case, so the same label stacking, label-based forwarding, and troubleshooting techniques can be applied with no changes to the operational models. The only change is to type or script larger IPv6 addresses.

Service providers currently use large back-end management and operational support systems (OSS) for their operations and management. This management and OSS provide network information, provision the network, perform network inventory, alert you about failure conditions, and provide an interface to billing systems. Adding 6PE or 6VPE to the network requires some changes in the OSS and management systems. The OSS and management systemsin particular, the provisioning systemsneed to be updated to reflect the new IPv6 address space. Troubleshooting, fault monitoring, and diagnostic tools must be updated to handle the new IP versions. New MIB objects also must be parsed to understand the network information for billing and management purposes.

The overhead associated with adding IPv6 to the network is similar to the overhead associated with adding a new protocol to it. The assumption is that the benefits of adding IPv6 outweigh the costs in the medium to long term.