RFC 3701 (rfc3701) - Page 1 of 6

6bone (IPv6 Testing Address Allocation) Phaseout

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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
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