NEWS
• Relates to: CCIE
Though Cisco intends to go forward with its planned update to the CCIE Routing and Switching lab exam already scheduled for August 1, 2004, word has just come out that new content for that exam will no longer include coverage of the most modern implementation of TCP/IP—namely IPv6. (For more information on that topic, see the next section.) Though the lab exam will update its coverage to IOS Release 12.2T, the updated coverage will not touch on the IPv6 features in that new release. According to the Cisco announcement, IPv6 coverage won't be included on the exam until January 1, 2005.
About IPv6
Whereas IPv4 uses a pretty skimpy 32-bit address space (at least by modern standards: it does support up to nearly 4 GB of addresses), IPv6 offers a capacious 128-bit address space, which is 296 or 7.92 * 1028 times bigger. In case those numbers don't register, experts claim that this is a big enough address space to give every square foot of planet Earth's surface its own IP address! IPv6 also includes substantial security enhancements over IPv4, mostly because protocol designers now have over 20 years experience in how to do protocol-level security right, after omitting it from initial designs, and working like mad to correct that oversight with additional protocol layers and security services as an afterthought. There's a lot to learn—and like—about IPv6, but it is substantially different from IPv4. Start with the PC Network Advisor's IPv6 Tutorial to get yourself started, and then check out these books for more information on IPv6:
- Joseph Davies, Understanding IPv6, Microsoft Press, 2002, ISBN: 0735612455 (list price: $29.99). Given the size of the subject, at 544 pages this book offers short, clear, and concise coverage that's also illustrated with protocol trace captures. For me, this book presents IPv6 as well as any work in progress can be presented.
- Silvia Hagen, IPv6 Essentials, O'Reilly & Associates, 2002, ISBN: 0596001258 (list price: $$39.95). Though even shorter than the Davies book, this one is more focused on protocol formats, layouts, and internal operation details. While it offers great coverage of IPv6's inner workings, it's not a good book for sysadmins to use to learn how to work with IPv6—it's more for developers who need to implement IPv6.
- J.D. Wegner and Robert Rockeli, IP Addressing and Subnetting including IPv6, Syngress Media, 1999, ISBN: 1928994016 (list price: $59.95). Though it may not sound like it, IT pros who work with IPv4 and IPv6 will find this book useful and informative. It concentrates on addressing and subnetting (key activities in their own right) but also provides lots of useful descriptions and background about both IPv4 and IPv6, along with information about how protocols and services (particularly DNS and DHCP) change when moving from the older version to the newer. Though a bit dated by now, the book delivers useful info.
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