RFC 3701 (rfc3701) - Page 1 of 6
6bone (IPv6 Testing Address Allocation) Phaseout
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group R. Fink
Request for Comments: 3701 R. Hinden
Obsoletes: 2471 March 2004
Category: Informational
6bone (IPv6 Testing Address Allocation) Phaseout
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2004). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
The 6bone was established in 1996 by the IETF as an IPv6 Testbed
network to enable various IPv6 testing as well as to assist in the
transitioning of IPv6 into the Internet. It operates under the IPv6
address allocation 3FFE::/16 from RFC 2471. As IPv6 is beginning its
production deployment it is appropriate to plan for the phaseout of
the 6bone. This document establishes a plan for a multi-year
phaseout of the 6bone and its address allocation on the assumption
that the IETF is the appropriate place to determine this.
This document obsoletes RFC 2471, "IPv6 Testing Address Allocation",
December, 1998. RFC 2471 will become historic.
1. Introduction
The 6bone IPv6 Testbed network was established in March 1996,
becoming operational during the summer of 1996 using an IPv6 testing
address allocation of 5F00::/8 [TEST-OLD] that used the original (and
now obsolete) provider based unicast address format. In July 1998, a
new IPv6 Addressing Architecture [ARCH] replaced the original
provider based unicast address format with the now standardized
Aggregatable Global Unicast Address Format [AGGR].
To allow the 6bone to operate under the revised IPv6 address
architecture with the new Aggregatable Global Unicast addressing
format, [TEST-OLD] was replaced with a new IPv6 testing address
Fink & Hinden Informational