Review of IPv6 for Enterprise Networks

IPv6 for Enterprise Networks by Shannon McFarland, Muninder Sambi, Nikhil Sharma, and Sanjay Hooda is a timely new book that helps network engineers plan for the upcoming switch from IPv4 to IPv6.  The authors start with a quick review of CCDA/CCDP topics relating to networking models that they then use throughout the book to compare IPv4 deployments to IPv6 deployments. The one thing that I found lacking in the review was a quick overview of IPv6 itself.  Especially since Cisco Self-Study: Implementing IPv6 is nearly 8 years old and a lot has changed in that time.


The next part of the book explores the process of migrating from IPv4 to IPv6 in an enterprise.  It looks at justifications, education and planning the migration.  There is a very useful section that discusses the challenges to expect from internal and external applications.  


Finally the last part of the book is dedicated to examining the differences in implementation between IPv4 and IPv6.  The authors do a wonderful job of using real world examples from various routing protocols to pinpoint the similarities and differences with lots of screen shots.


This book will definitely be a great resource for any network engineer that will be going through the IPv4 to IPv6 transition.  That would be any network engineer not retiring in the next year.  I hope that Cisco Press will be forthcoming soon of an updated version of Cisco Self-Study: Implementing Cisco IPv6 Networks (IPV6).


Do you have a favorite learning resource for IPv6?  Please share it in the comments section.  It's going to take a lot of effort for network engineers to stay up to date during the shift since we'll be basically relearning everything we know in a new way.  Sort of like someone that knows English learning Old English.