Advanced IPv6 Operations, Routing, Security, Translation, Multicast, MPLS, and Troubleshooting
2-Day Instructor-Led Hands-On Lab Course
Available in Web-Based or On-Site delivery.
Minimum 10 students – Maximum 16 students
Course Description
IPv6 fundamentals explain how IPv6 works. Advanced IPv6 is about operating it.
This intensive two-day hands-on course is designed for network professionals who already understand IPv6 addressing, Neighbor Discovery, SLAAC, DHCPv6, ICMPv6, routing fundamentals, and basic IPv6 troubleshooting.
Rather than repeating those fundamentals, this course focuses on the more complex issues encountered when IPv6 is deployed in enterprise, broadband, service-provider, and other production networks.
Students explore advanced IPv6 addressing and prefix-management concepts, IPv6-only networking, IPv4 service delivery over IPv6, NAT64/DNS64 and 464XLAT, advanced routing, IPv6 security, multicast and Anycast, IPv6 over MPLS, packet analysis, and advanced troubleshooting.
Hands-on configuration exercises are combined with Wireshark packet analysis so students can examine both the control-plane configuration and the packets produced by that configuration.
The course emphasizes a systems approach: Design it. Configure it. Verify it. Capture it. Secure it. Troubleshoot it.
This Is Not an IPv6 Fundamentals Course
Students attending this course are expected to already understand:
- IPv6 address notation and compression
- IPv6 prefixing and subnetting
- Global Unicast and Link-Local addressing
- IPv6 multicast fundamentals
- ICMPv6
- Neighbor Discovery
- Neighbor Solicitation and Neighbor Advertisement
- Router Solicitation and Router Advertisement
- SLAAC
- DHCPv6 fundamentals
- Basic IPv6 routing
- OSPFv3 fundamentals
- Basic Wireshark IPv6 analysis
These subjects may be referenced during advanced exercises but are not retaught from the beginning.
Students who need this foundation should first complete CellStream’s Hands-On IPv6 – 2 Day or Hands-On IPv6 – 3 Day course.
Course Objectives
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- Analyze advanced IPv6 addressing and prefix-management scenarios.
- Explain IPv6 source and destination address-selection behavior.
- Configure and analyze DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation.
- Understand operational issues involving IPv6 Extension Headers.
- Analyze IPv6 fragmentation and Path MTU problems.
- Design and troubleshoot IPv6-only network environments.
- Explain and analyze NAT64 and DNS64 operation.
- Explain 464XLAT architecture and the roles of CLAT and provider-side translation.
- Recognize legacy IPv6 transition mechanisms without relying on them for new deployments.
- Apply advanced OSPFv3 troubleshooting techniques.
- Analyze IPv6 routing using MP-BGP.
- Apply IPv6 route-policy and route-filtering concepts.
- Explain IPv6 operation across MPLS networks.
- Understand 6PE and IPv6 VPN architectures.
- Explain the fundamentals of Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6).
- Analyze advanced IPv6 multicast operation.
- Configure and analyze IPv6 Anycast.
- Apply IPv6 security and first-hop protection techniques.
- Recognize rogue Router Advertisement and DHCPv6 behavior.
- Analyze IPv6 Extension Header security implications.
- Protect IPv6 network and control-plane resources.
- Use Wireshark to analyze complex IPv6 protocol behavior.
- Apply a structured methodology to advanced IPv6 troubleshooting.
Audience
This course is designed for experienced networking professionals who already possess a solid understanding of IPv6 fundamentals and require deeper operational skills.
Ideal participants include:
- Network Engineers
- Network Architects
- Service Provider Engineers
- Broadband Network Engineers
- Network Operations Center personnel
- Network Design Engineers
- Network Security Engineers
- Network Administrators
- Systems and Test Engineers
- Network Management personnel
- Technical Support Engineers
- Technical Sales Engineers
- Technical Marketing personnel
- Certification candidates seeking advanced IPv6 knowledge
This course is particularly appropriate for personnel responsible for designing, deploying, operating, securing, or troubleshooting production IPv6 networks.
Prerequisites
This is an advanced course.
Students should have successfully completed one of the following CellStream courses:
Equivalent IPv6 knowledge and hands-on experience may also satisfy the prerequisite.
Students are expected to arrive comfortable with IPv6 addressing, Neighbor Discovery, SLAAC, DHCPv6, ICMPv6, routing fundamentals, OSPFv3, and basic packet analysis.
Students participating remotely should have a computer capable of connecting to the provided lab environment and running the software required for the exercises.
Course Materials
Students receive:
- Course Student Guide
- Access to the IPv6 router lab environment
- Advanced configuration exercises
- Troubleshooting scenarios
- IPv6 packet captures
- Wireshark analysis exercises
- Reference material for continued study
Course Outline
Section 1: Advanced IPv6 Operations
The course begins with an operational readiness exercise rather than a review of IPv6 fundamentals.
Topics include:
- IPv6 deployment architectures
- Dual-stack versus IPv6-only operation
- Multiple IPv6 addresses per interface
- Address lifetimes
- Preferred versus deprecated addresses
- Source-address selection
- Destination-address selection
- Address-management considerations
- IPv6 prefix planning
- Operational verification techniques
Lab 1: Advanced IPv6 Operational Analysis
Students inspect a working IPv6 network and use host, router, and packet information to determine how addressing and path-selection decisions are being made.
Section 2: Advanced DHCPv6 and Prefix Delegation
Students move beyond basic DHCPv6 address assignment and examine how IPv6 prefixes can be dynamically delegated to downstream routers.
Topics include:
- DHCPv6 architecture review
- Identity Associations
- DHCPv6 Relay
- Prefix Delegation
- Requesting and delegating routers
- Delegated prefix lifetimes
- Downstream prefix allocation
- Broadband customer-edge applications
- Troubleshooting DHCPv6-PD
Lab 2: DHCPv6 Prefix Delegation
Students configure prefix delegation, examine the resulting router configuration, and capture the DHCPv6 messages involved.
Section 3: IPv6 Extension Headers, Fragmentation, and MTU
IPv6 Extension Headers introduce important operational and security considerations that network professionals must understand.
Topics include:
- IPv6 Extension Header architecture
- Hop-by-Hop Options
- Destination Options
- Routing Headers
- Fragment Header
- Authentication and Encapsulating Security Payload headers
- Extension Header chains
- Device and firewall processing considerations
- IPv6 fragmentation
- ICMPv6 Packet Too Big
- Path MTU Discovery
- Troubleshooting MTU black holes
Lab 3: IPv6 Extension Headers and Path MTU Analysis
Students use Wireshark to examine IPv6 Extension Headers and diagnose an IPv6 Path MTU problem.
IPv6-Only Networking and IPv4 Service Delivery
Section 4: Moving Beyond Dual Stack
Dual stack is not the only way to deploy IPv6.
Students examine architectures where portions of the network operate IPv6-only while maintaining access to IPv4 services.
Topics include:
- Dual-stack operational considerations
- IPv6-only network architecture
- IPv4-as-a-Service concepts
- Translation versus tunneling
- Application considerations
- DNS dependencies
- Troubleshooting IPv6-only environments
Section 5: NAT64 and DNS64
Students examine how IPv6-only clients communicate with IPv4-only services.
Topics include:
- IPv6-to-IPv4 translation
- Stateful NAT64
- NAT64 prefixes
- DNS64
- Synthesized AAAA records
- Packet translation
- TCP, UDP, and ICMP considerations
- DNSSEC considerations
- Troubleshooting NAT64/DNS64
Lab 4: NAT64 and DNS64
Students follow a communication from an IPv6-only client to an IPv4-only server and analyze both sides of the translation.
The exercise includes packet captures showing the IPv6 and IPv4 versions of the communication.
Section 6: 464XLAT
Students expand the translation discussion to environments where applications or devices still require IPv4 service over IPv6-only access.
Topics include:
- 464XLAT architecture
- CLAT
- Provider-side translation
- IPv4-to-IPv6-to-IPv4 operation
- IPv4 literals and legacy applications
- Broadband and mobile-network applications
- Packet-flow analysis
Exercise: Following a 464XLAT Packet Flow
Section 7: Legacy IPv6 Transition Mechanisms
Advanced network professionals may still encounter older transition mechanisms in configurations, documentation, or packet captures.
Students learn to recognize:
- Configured IPv6-over-IPv4 tunnels
- 6to4
- Teredo
- ISATAP
These mechanisms are discussed primarily for recognition, troubleshooting, and migration purposes, rather than as preferred technologies for new deployments.
Advanced IPv6 Routing
Section 8: Advanced OSPFv3 Operations
Students build on the OSPFv3 fundamentals covered in prerequisite training.
Topics include:
- OSPFv3 packet analysis
- Neighbor and adjacency troubleshooting
- Link-State Advertisement analysis
- Multiple-area considerations
- Route summarization
- Route redistribution
- Default-route advertisement
- Authentication considerations
- Troubleshooting OSPFv3 convergence
Lab 5: Advanced OSPFv3 Troubleshooting
Students receive a partially functioning multi-router IPv6 network and must identify and correct routing problems.
Section 9: MP-BGP and IPv6 Routing Policy
Students examine IPv6 routing using Multiprotocol BGP.
Topics include:
- MP-BGP architecture
- IPv6 Address Families
- IPv6 NLRI
- MP_REACH and MP_UNREACH
- BGP next-hop behavior
- iBGP and eBGP considerations
- Route filtering
- Prefix lists
- Route maps and routing policy
- IPv6 route advertisement
- BGP troubleshooting
Lab 6: MP-BGP IPv6 Routing
Students establish IPv6 BGP routing, advertise prefixes, apply policy, and verify the resulting routes.
IPv6 Security
Section 10: Advanced IPv6 Security
IPv6 security requires more than applying an IPv4 security policy to IPv6 addresses.
Topics include:
- IPv6 attack surface
- IPv6 addressing and security
- IPv6 ACL design
- ICMPv6 filtering
- Neighbor Discovery threats
- Rogue Router Advertisements
- Rogue DHCPv6 services
- Router Advertisement Guard concepts
- DHCPv6 protection
- Neighbor Discovery protection
- Extension Header security considerations
- Fragmentation attacks
- Control-plane protection
- Route filtering
- IPv6 spoofing considerations
- Logging and monitoring
- Security in dual-stack environments
Lab 7: Detecting and Mitigating IPv6 First-Hop Threats
Students identify unexpected IPv6 control traffic using packet captures and determine appropriate mitigation strategies.
Advanced IPv6 Multicast and Anycast
Section 11: IPv6 Multicast
Students move beyond basic IPv6 multicast addressing into routed multicast operation.
Topics include:
- IPv6 multicast architecture
- Multicast scopes
- Multicast Listener Discovery
- MLD operation
- Multicast routing concepts
- IPv6 PIM concepts
- Multicast forwarding
- Multicast troubleshooting
- Wireshark multicast analysis
Lab 8: IPv6 Multicast
Students configure and analyze IPv6 multicast operation and use packet captures to verify control and data-plane behavior.
Section 12: IPv6 Anycast
Students examine how the same IPv6 address can be advertised from multiple network locations.
Topics include:
- IPv6 Anycast architecture
- Routing-based service selection
- Anycast applications
- Routing considerations
- Failure and convergence behavior
- Troubleshooting Anycast services
Lab 9: IPv6 Anycast
Students configure an Anycast service and observe how routing determines the destination reached by clients.
IPv6 in Service Provider Networks
Section 13: IPv6 Across MPLS
Students examine methods used to deliver IPv6 services across MPLS infrastructures.
Topics include:
- IPv6 and MPLS architecture
- IPv6 Provider Edge concepts
- 6PE
- MP-BGP route distribution
- IPv6 over an IPv4/MPLS core
- IPv6 VPN services
- VPN-IPv6 routes
- 6VPE concepts
- MPLS label forwarding
- IPv6 MTU considerations
- Service-provider design considerations
Lab 10: IPv6 Across an MPLS Network
Students configure or analyze IPv6 connectivity across an MPLS environment and follow the control-plane and forwarding behavior.
Section 14: Introduction to SRv6
Segment Routing over IPv6 represents an important advanced use of the IPv6 architecture.
This section provides an introduction to:
- Segment Routing concepts
- SRv6
- Segment Identifiers
- Segment Routing Header
- SRv6 endpoint behavior
- Source-routed instructions
- Underlay and overlay concepts
- Service-provider applications
- Relationship between SR-MPLS and SRv6
This section is intended as an architectural introduction, not a complete SRv6 configuration course.
Advanced Troubleshooting and Packet Analysis
Section 15: Advanced IPv6 Troubleshooting
Students apply a structured troubleshooting methodology across increasingly complex IPv6 problems.
Potential problem areas include:
- Source-address selection
- Prefix Delegation
- Router Advertisements
- Neighbor Discovery
- Extension Headers
- Path MTU Discovery
- DNS64
- NAT64
- Routing
- OSPFv3
- MP-BGP
- Multicast
- Security policy
- MPLS transport
- IPv4/IPv6 coexistence
Troubleshooting is based on three primary sources of evidence:
Host evidence + Network-device evidence + Packet evidence
Students are expected to separate:
- Observed facts
- Configuration evidence
- Packet evidence
- Assumptions
- Hypotheses
- Proven root cause
Section 16: Advanced IPv6 Troubleshooting Capstone
The course concludes with an integrated troubleshooting exercise containing multiple IPv6 technologies and multiple possible failure points.
Students must:
- Determine what is actually failing.
- Identify the affected protocol or network layer.
- Gather relevant host and router information.
- Select appropriate packet-capture points.
- Analyze IPv6 packet exchanges.
- Develop one or more hypotheses.
- Test those hypotheses.
- Identify the root cause.
- Correct the problem.
- Verify that the correction actually resolved the problem.
The emphasis is not simply on getting connectivity back.
Students must be able to explain why the network failed and provide evidence supporting their conclusion.
Course Outcome
This course takes students beyond IPv6 fundamentals and into the operational challenges associated with real IPv6 networks.
Students leave the course better prepared to:
Design IPv6 networks.
Operate IPv6 networks.
Secure IPv6 networks.
Analyze IPv6 networks.
And troubleshoot IPv6 networks when they fail.
Course Availability:
Contact us for schedule dates and times.
View the course calendar and browse for our schedule.
Course Description, Content, Outline, and Instructional Design are Copyright ©CellStream, Inc.