IPv6 WG: Education/Training for Campus Network Engineers

The biggest hurdle that we face in deploying and using IPv6 within Internet2 members is that campus engineers lack the knowledge and experience needed for efficient deployment and user support. The Education/Training Activity will be organized to provide them the information that they need.

The working group will address these needs by some combination of the following events.

1. One or two IPv6 seminars per year. The focus of these would be on explaining deployment and transition issues. These could also undertake to explain the value that IPv6 brings to such issues as multicast, multihoming, mobility and global routability.
2. Two (one per semester) IPv6-only hands-on workshops. At them, participants would start from scratch and build an IPv6 network, including routers, hosts, DNS tools and various transition tools, ending up with a functional IPv6 network fully interconnected to the global Internet. There would be considerable resources required to accomplish this, the equipment would include routers, workstations and network connectivity. The other critical resource would be trainers. The idea is to move these around the country, thus lessening the need for long distance travel and hopefully thus maximizing attendance.
3. Publish, once every three months, an electronic and not necessarily large document that is IPv6-only in content. This document will be sent to all the engineering contacts Internet2 campuses. The aim is simply to maintain a certain level of awareness.
4. Develop a paper that lays out the Case for IPv6 Applications.