Making SDN better with IPv6

Contrary to what the networking and virtualization vendors claim, SDN (software-defined networking) isn’t an amazing new discovery but an interesting rehash of old ideas (after all, we had controller-based networks in the days of IBM mainframes). Even worse, most vendors shipping so-called software-defined solutions implement them first for IPv4, grudgingly adding support for IPv6 years later when the customers force them to face new reality. Not surprisingly, trying to reinvent old technologies and forwarding paradigms rarely ends well.

There are a few notable exceptions, from network operators like Deutsche Telekom building fully-automated IPv6-only networks to cloud providers using the extra address space provided by IPv6 in novel ways to implement fast container networking or service mobility.

The short presentation by Ivan Pepelnjak will start with a brief recap of what SDN is (and is not), describe why most SDN solutions should be protocol agnostic (it shouldn’t matter whether they use IPv4 or IPv6 addresses to forward traffic), and finally how one can creatively use the unique properties of IPv6 to implement novel solutions like better load balancing in leaf-and-spine fabrics and service mobility with Identifier Locator Addressing.

Language for presentation and discussion is English.

Agenda

• 17.30 - 18.00 h - Doors open, registration
• 18.00 - ca 19.30 h - Presentation, Q&A and discussion
• 19.30 - ca 21 h - Apero Riche and casual networking

Register via Digicomp website. For IPv6 Expert members the event is free, for all other we charge a contribution towards expensecost of 20.- Swiss francs, to be paid in cash on entrance.

Speaker

Ivan Pepelnjak, Independent Network Architect, ipSpace.net

Ivan Pepelnjak (CCIE#1354 Emeritus) has been designing, deploying, operating and troubleshooting IP-based enterprise and service provider networks since 1990. He’s the author of EIGRP and MPLS books published by Cisco Press, numerous articles and highly praised webinars, including Building Large IPv6 Service Provider Networks, IPv6 Security and IPv6 Transition Mechanisms.
His blog, where you'll find numerous data center- and IPv6-related articles, is usually considered one of the best technology-focused internetworking blogs.

In 2011 he started to analyze OpenFlow technology and SDN ideas (and being pretty vocal about their shortcomings), resulting in a number of high-impact events, including chairing the technical roundtable of first-ever OpenFlow symposium in Silicon Valley in September 2011, various presentations and workshops at Interop, Troopers, RIPE and other regional ISP meetings, on-site SDN workshops for large enterprises and service providers and several SDN-related books and dozens of OpenFlow and SDN-related technical articles and webinars.