Spanning Tree and PVST

With PVST (Per Vlan STP), there is a different instance of STP for each VLAN. To derive the VLAN BID, the switch picks a different MAC address from its base pool for each VLAN. Each VLAN has its own root bridge, root port, and so on. You can configure these so that data flow is optimized, and traffic load is balanced among the switches. Spanning Tree is enabled by default on every VLAN.


Configuring Spanning Tree

To change the STP priority value, use the following:

Switch (config)#spanning-tree vlan vlan_no. priority value


To configure a switch as root without manually changing priority values, use the following:

Switch (config)# spanning-tree vlan vlan_no. root {primary | secondary}


To change the STP port cost for an access port, use the following:

Switch(config-if)# spanning-tree cost value


To change the STP port cost for a VLAN on a trunk port, use the following:

Switch(config-if)# spanning-tree vlan vlan_no. cost value


To display STP information for a VLAN, use the following:

Switch# show spanning-tree vlan vlan_no.


To display the STP information for an interface, use the following:

Switch # show spanning-tree interface interface_no. [detail]


To verify STP timers, use the following:

Switch #show spanning-tree bridge brief


Spanning Tree Enhancements

Cisco has some proprietary enhancements to Spanning Tree that help speed up network convergence. They include:

• PortFast

• UplinkFast

• BackboneFast

Portfast

Portfast is for access (user) ports only. It causes the port to bypass the STP listening and learning states and transition directly to forwarding. Connecting a switch to a Portfast port can cause loops to develop.

(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast


UplinkFast

UplinkFast is for speeding convergence when a direct link to an upstream switch fails. The switch identifies backup ports for the root port (these are called an uplink group). If the root port fails, then one of the ports in the uplink group is unblocked and transitions immediately to forwarding—it bypasses the listening and learning stages. It should be used in wiring closet switches with at least one blocked port. The command to enable uplinkfast is shown below. Please note that uplinkfast is enabled globally, so the command affects all ports and all VLANs.

(config)# spanning-tree uplinkfast


BackboneFast

BackboneFast is used for speeding convergence when a link fails that is not directly connected to the switch. It helps the switch detect indirect failures. If a switch running BackboneFast receives an inferior BPDU from its designated bridge, it knows a link on the path to the root has failed. (An inferior BPDU is one that lists the same switch for root
bridge and designated bridge.)

The switch then tries to find an alternate path to the root by sending a Root Link Query (RLQ) frame out all alternate ports. The root then responds with an RLQ response, and the port receiving this response can transition to forwarding. Alternate ports are determined in this way:

• If the inferior BPDU was received on a blocked port, then the root port and any other blocked ports are considered alternates.

• If the inferior BPDU was received on the root port, then all blocked ports are considered alternates.

• If the inferior BPDU was received on the root port and there are no blocked ports, the switch assumes it has lost connectivity with the root and advertises itself as root.

Configure this command on all switches in the network:

(config)#spanning-tree backbonefast


Rapid Spanning Tree (RSTP)

Rapid Spanning Tree (RSTP) 802.1w is a standards-based, non-proprietary way of speeding STP convergence. Switch ports exchange an explicit handshake when they transition to forwarding. RSTP describes different port states than regular STP, as shown in the Table 3-3.



RSTP Port Roles

RSTP also defines different Spanning Tree roles for ports:

• Root port—The best path to the root (same as STP).

• Designated port—Same role as with STP.

• Alternate port—A backup to the root port.

• Backup port—A backup to the designated port.

• Disabled port—One not used in the Spanning Tree.

• Edge port—One connected only to an end user.

BPDU Differences in RSTP

In regular STP, BPDUs are originated by the root and relayed by each switch. In RSTP, each switch originates BPDUs, whether or not it receives a BPDU on its root port. All eight bits of the BPDU type field are used by RSTP. The TC and TC Ack bits are still used. The other six bits specify the port’s role and its RSTP state, and are used in the port handshake. The RSTP BPDU is set to Type 2, Version 2. PVST is done by Rapid PVST+ on Catalyst switches.


RSTP Fast Convergence

The Rapid Spanning tree process understands and incorporates topology changes much quicker than the previous version.

• RSTP uses a mechanism similar to BackboneFast—When an inferior BPDU is received, the switch accepts it. If the switch has another path the root, it uses that and informs its downstream switch of the alternate path.

• Edge ports work the same as Portfast ports—They automatically transition directly to forwarding.

• Link type—If you connect two switches through a point-to-point link and the local port becomes a designated port, it exchanges a handshake with the other port to quickly transition to forwarding. Full-duplex links are assumed to be point-to-point, half-duplex links are assumed to be shared.
  

• Backup and alternate ports—Ports that can transition to forwarding when no BPDUs are received from a neighbor switch (similar to UplinkFast).

If an RSTP switch detects a topology change, it sets a TC timer to twice the hello time and sets the TC bit on all BPDUs sent out to its designated and root ports until the timer expires. It also clears the MAC addresses learned on these ports.

If an RSTP switch receives a TC BPDU, it clears the MAC addresses on that port and sets the TC bit on all BPDUs sent out its designated and root ports until the TC timer expires.


Multiple Spanning Tree (MST)

With Multiple Spanning Tree (MST), you can group VLANs and run one instance of Spanning Tree for a group of VLANs. This cuts down on the number of root bridges, root ports, designated ports, and BPDUs in your network. Switches in the same MST Region share the same configuration and VLAN mappings. Configure MST with these commands:


To be compatible with 802.1Q trunking, which has one common Spanning Tree (CST) for all VLANs, MST runs one instance of an Internal Spanning Tree (IST). The IST appears as one bridge to a CST area and is MST instance number 0. The original MST Spanning Trees (called M-Trees) are active only in the region—they combine at the edge of the CST area to form one.

Spanning Tree

Ethernet network design balances two separate imperatives. First, Ethernet has no capacity for detecting circular paths. If such paths exist, traffic loops around and accumulates until new traffic is shut out (this is called a broadcast storm). Second, having secondary paths is good preparation for inevitable link failure.

Spanning Tree is a protocol that prevents loop formation by detecting redundant links and disabling them until needed. Designers can therefore build redundant links and the protocol will allow one to pass traffic and keep the other in reserve. When the active link fails, the secondary link is enabled quickly.


Understanding the Spanning Tree Protocol

Switches either forward or filter Layer 2 frames. The way they make the forwarding/filtering decision can lead to loops in a network with redundant links. Spanning Tree is a protocol that detects potential loops and breaks them.

A Layer 2 switch is functionally the same thing as a transparent bridge. Transparent bridges:

• Learn MAC (Media Access Control) addresses by looking at the source address of incoming frames. They build a table mapping MAC address to port number.

• Forward broadcasts and multicasts out all ports except the on which they came. (This is called flooding.)

• Forward unknown unicasts out all ports except the one on which they came. An unknown unicast is a message bound for a unicast MAC address that is not in the switch’s table of addresses and ports.

• Do not make any changes to the frames as they forward them.

Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) works by selecting a root bridge, then selecting one loop-free path from the root bridge to every other switch. (STP uses the term bridge because it was written before there were switches.) Consider the following switched network (see Figure 3-1).


Spanning Tree must select:

• One root bridge

• One root port per nonroot bridge

• One designated port per network segment

Spanning Tree Election Criteria

Spanning Tree builds paths out from a central point along the fastest available links. It selects path according to the following criteria:

1. Lowest root bridge ID (BID)
2. Lowest path cost to the root
3. Lowest sender bridge ID
4. Lowest sender port ID (PID)

When reading the path selection criteria, remember the following:

• Bridge ID—Bridge priority: Bridge MAC address.

• Bridge priority—2-btye value, 0–65,535 (0–0xFFFF).

• Default priority is 32,768 (0x8000).

• Port ID—Port priority: port number.

• Port priority—A 6-bit value, 0–63, default is 32.

• Path cost—This is the cumulative value of the cost of each link between the bridge and the root. Cost values were updated in 2000 and you should see only new cost values, but both are given in the following table (see Table 3-1). Old and new switches work together.

The STP Election

Spanning Tree builds paths out from a starting point, the “root” of the tree. The first step in selecting paths is to identify this root device. Then, each device selects its best path back to the root, according to the criteria laid out in the previous sections (lowest root BID, lowest cost, lowest advertising BID, lowest port).


Root Bridge Election

Looking at Figure 3-1, first select the root bridge. Assume each switch uses the default priority.

• Switch A BID = 80-00-00-0c-11-11-00-11

• Switch B BID = 80-00-00-0c-26-78-10-10

• Switch C BID = 80-00-00-0c-32-1a-bc-de

• Switch D BID = 80-00-00-0c-81-81-11-22

• Switch E BID = 80-00-00-0c-26-79-22-22

Switch A has the lowest BID, so it is the root. Each nonroot switch must now select a root port.


Root Port Election

The root port is the port that leads back to the root. Continuing with Figure 3-1, once A is acknowledged as the root, the remaining bridges sort out their lowest cost path back to the A.

• Switch B—Uses the link to A with a cost of 19 (link speed of 100 Mbps).

• Switch C—The connected link has a cost of 100 (Ethernet), the link through B has a path cost of 38 (two 100 Mbps links), and so B is chosen.

• Switch D—The link through B has a path cost of 119, the path cost through C to A is 119, the path through C then B is 57, so C is chosen.

• Switch E—The lowest path cost is the same for both ports (76 through D to C to B to A). Next check sender BID—sender for both ports is D, so that it does not break the tie. Next check sender Port ID. Assuming default port priority, the PID for 0/1 is lower than the PID for 0/2, so the port on the left is the root port.

Designated Port Election

Designated ports are ports that lead away from the root. Obviously, all ports on the root bridge are designated ports (A-B and A-C in Figure 3-1).

• Segment B-D—B has the lowest path cost to root (19 vs 119), so it is designated for this segment.

• Segment C-D—C has the lowest path cost to the root (100 vs 119), so it is designated for this segment.

• Segment B-C—B has the lowest path cost to the root (19 vs 100), so it is designated for this segment.

• Both segments D-E—D has the lowest cost to the root (57 vs 76), so it is designated for both segments.

Now the looped topology has been turned into a tree with A at the root. Notice that there are no more redundant links.


Bridge Protocol Data Units (BPDUs)

Switches exchange BPDUs. There are two types of BPDUs:
Configuration and Topology Change (TCN).

Configuration BPDUs are sent every two seconds from the root toward the downstream switches. They:

• Are used during an election.

• Maintain connectivity between switches.

• Send timer information from the root.

TCN BPDUs are sent toward the root when:

• There is a link failure.

• A port starts forwarding, and there is already a designated port.

• The switch receives a TCN from a neighbor.

When a switch receives a TCN BPDU, it acknowledges that with a configuration BPDU that has the TCN Acknowledgment bit set.

When the root bridge receives a TCN, it starts sending configuration BPDUs with the TCN bit set for a period of time equal to max age plus forward delay. Switches that receive this change their MAC table aging time to the Forward Delay time, causing MAC addresses to age faster. The topology change also causes an election of the root bridge, root ports, and designated ports.


BPDU Fields

Some of the fields in the BPDU include:

• Root bridge ID—The BID of the current root.

• Sender’s root path cost—The cost to the root.

• Sender’s bridge ID—Sender’s priority concatenated to MAC.

• Sender’s port ID—The port number, transmitted as final tiebreaker.

• Hello time—Two seconds by default.

• Forward Delay—15 seconds by default.

• Max Age—20 seconds by default.

Spanning Tree Port States

When a port is first activated, it transitions through the following stages shown in Table 3-2.




Designing for Spanning Tree

To optimize data flow in the network, design and configure switches for the following STP roles:

• Primary and secondary root bridges (set priority values)

• Designated and root ports (set port priorities/path cost)

• Enable STP enhancements, such as Root Guard

802.1Q Tunnels

Tunneling is a way to send 802.1Q-tagged frames across a foreign network (such as a Service Provider’s network) and still preserve the original 802.1Q tag. The SP configures their end of the trunk link as a tunnel port and assigns a VLAN to carry your traffic within their network. The SP switch then adds a second 802.1Q tag to each frame that came in the tunnel port. Other switches in the SP network see only this second tag, and do not read the original tag. When the frame exits the SP network, the extra tag is removed, leaving the original 802.1Q tag to be read by the receiving switch in your network.


Layer 2 Protocol Tunneling (GBPT)

If a Service Provider separates sections of your network, you can use Layer 2 protocol tunneling to tunnel CDP, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP), and VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) frames across the SP’s cloud. This is called Generic Bridge PDU Tunneling (GBPT). Frames from the above control protocols are encapsulated as they enter the SP’s network on a tunnel port, and de-encapsulated when they exit that network.


Troubleshooting Trunking

Troubleshooting trunking links happens mostly at the physical and datalink layers. Start with the most basic assumptions and work your way “up” the OSI model. It is important to show that physical layer connectivity is present, before moving on to, for instance before trying to troubleshoot IP problems.

• Are both sides of the link in the correct trunking mode?

• Is the same trunk encapsulation on both sides?

• If 802.1Q, is the same native VLAN on both sides?

• Are the same VLANs permitted on both sides?

VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP)

VTP is a protocol that runs over trunk links and synchronizes the VLAN databases of all switches in the VTP domain. A VTP domain is an administrative group—all switches within that group must have the same VTP domain name configured or they do not synchronize databases.
VTP works by using Configuration Revision numbers and VTP advertisements:

• All switches send out VTP advertisements every five minutes, or when there is a change to the VLAN database (when a VLAN is created, deleted, or renamed).

• VTP advertisements contain a Configuration Revision number. This number is increased by one for every VLAN change.

• When a switch receives a VTP advertisement, it compares the Configuration Revision number against the one in its VLAN database.

• If the new number is higher, the switch overwrites its database with the new VLAN information, and forwards the information to its neighbor switches.

• If the number is the same, the switch ignores the advertisement.

• If the new number is lower, the switch replies with the more up-to-date information contained in its own database.

VTP Switch Roles

A switch can be a VTP:

• Server—The default VTP role. Servers can create, delete, and rename VLANs. They originate both periodic and triggered VTP advertisements and synchronize their databases with other switches in the domain.
  

• Client—Clients cannot make VLAN changes. They originate periodic VTP advertisements and synchronize their databases with other switches in the domain.

• Transparent—It can create, delete, and rename VLANs, but its VLANs are only local. It does not originate advertisements or synchronize its database with any other switches. It forwards VTP advertisements out its trunk links, however.

VTP Pruning

By default, switches flood broadcasts, multicasts, and unknown unicasts across trunk links. Suppose a host in VLAN 10 on Switch B sends a broadcast. Hosts in VLAN 10 on Switch C need to see that broadcast, but Switch A has no ports in VLAN 10, so it doesn’t need to receive the broadcast traffic.

Enabling VTP pruning causes the switch to keep track of VLAN port assignments in its downstream switches. The switch then sends flooded traffic only on trunks toward switches that have ports assigned to the VLAN originating the traffic. It prunes flooded traffic from all other trunks. VTP pruning increases the available bandwidth by preventing unnecessary traffic on trunk links.

There are two versions of VTP: Version 1 and Version 2. To use Version 2, all switches in the domain must be capable of using it. Configure one server for Version 2, and the information is propagated through VTP.
Version 2 has the following added features:

• It supports Token Ring VLANs.

• Transparent switches pass along messages from both versions of VTP.

• Consistency checks are performed only when changes are configured through the CLI or SNMP.

Configuring VTP

VTP configuration is done at the global config mode. To configure the switch’s VTP mode:
(config)#vtp {server | client |transparent}

To configure the VTP domain name:
(config)#vtp domain name

To configure a VTP password (all switches in the domain must use the same password):
(config)#vtp password password

To configure the switch to use VTP Version 2:
(config)#vtp version 2

To enable pruning:
vtp pruning

To specify which VLANs are to be pruned:
(config-if)#switchport trunk pruning vlan {add | except | none | remove} vlan-list [,vlan[,vlan[,,,]]


Verifying and Monitoring VTP

To get basic information about the VTP configuration, use show vtp status. The example shows the default settings:

Troubleshooting VTP

The following are some common things to check when troubleshooting problems with VTP:

• Make sure you are trunking between the switches. VTP is sent only over trunk links.

• Make sure the domain name matches on both switches (name is case sensitive).

• If the switch is not updating its database, make sure it is not in transparent mode.

• If using passwords, make sure they all match. To remove a password, use no vtp password.

Adding a New Switch to a VTP Domain

Adding a new switch in client mode does not prevent it from propagating its incorrect VLAN information. A server synchronizes to a client if the client has the higher configuration revision number. You must reset the revision number back to 0 on the new switch. The easiest way to do this is to change the domain name. Then change it back to the correct one, and attach the switch to the network.

VLAN Trunking

A trunk is a link that carries traffic for more than one VLAN. Trunks multiplex traffic from multiple VLANs. Trunks connect switches and allow ports on multiple switches to be assigned to the same VLAN.

Two methods of identifying VLANs over trunk links are:

• Inter-Switch Link (ISL)—A Cisco proprietary method that encapsulates the original frame in a header, which contains VLAN information. It is protocol-independent and can identify Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP) and bridge protocol data unit (BPDU) frames.
  

• 802.1Q—Standards-based, tags the frames (inserts a field into the original frame immediately after the source MAC address field), and supports Ethernet and Token Ring networks.

When a frame comes into a switch port, the frame is tagged internally within the switch with the VLAN number of the port. When it reaches the outgoing port, the internal tag is removed. If the exit port is a trunk port, then its VLAN is identified in either the ISL encapsulation or the 802.1Q tag. The switch on the other end of the trunk removes the ISL or 802.1Q information, checks the VLAN of the frame, and adds the internal tag. If the exit port is a user port, then the original frame is sent out unchanged, making the use of VLANs transparent to the user.

If a nontrunking port receives an ISL-encapsulated frame, the frame is dropped. If the ISL header and footer cause the MTU size to be exceeded, it might be counted as an error.

If a nontrunking port receives an 802.1Q frame, the source and destination MAC addresses are read, the tag field is ignored, and the frame is switched normally at Layer 2.


Configuring a Trunk Link

Ports can become trunk ports either by static configuration or dynamic negotiation using Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP). A switch port can be in one of five DTP modes:

• Access—The port is a user port in a single VLAN.
• Trunk—The port negotiates trunking with the port on the other end of the link.
• Non-negotiate—The port is a trunk and does not do DTP negotiation with the other side of the link.
• Dynamic Desirable—Actively negotiates trunking with the other side of the link. It becomes a trunk if the port on the other switch is set to trunk, dynamic desirable, or dynamic auto mode.

Configure a port for trunking at the interface configuration mode:

(config-if)#switchport mode {dynamic {auto | desirable} | trunk}

If dynamic mode is used, DTP negotiates the trunking state and encapsulation. If trunk mode is used, you must specify encapsulation:

(config-if)#switchport trunk encapsulation {isl | dot1q | negotiate}


Native VLAN with 802.1Q

If you are using 802.1Q, specify a native VLAN for the trunk link with the command:

(config-if)#switchport trunk native vlan vlan no

Frames from the native VLAN are sent over the trunk link untagged. Native VLAN is the VLAN the port would be in if it were not a trunk, and it must match on both sides of the trunk link. VLAN 1 is the default native VLAN for all ports.


VLAN Mapping

ISL trunking recognizes only VLANs numbered 1–1001, but 802.1Q can use VLANs 0–4094. If you are using both ISL and 802.1Q in your network and have VLANs numbered above 1001, you have to map the 802.1Q VLANS to ISL numbers. Some rules about mapping VLANs include:

• You can configure only eight mappings.
• Mappings are local to the switch; the same mappings must be configured on all switches in the network.
• You can map only to Ethernet ISL VLANs.
• The 802.1Q VLANs with the same number as mapped ISL VLANs are blocked. (For example, you map 802.1Q VLAN 1500 to ISL VLAN 150, then 802.1Q VLAN 150 is blocked on that switch.)
• You should not map the 802.1Q native VLAN.

VLANs Allowed on the Trunk

By default, a trunk carries traffic for all VLANs. You can change that behavior for a particular trunk link by giving the following command at the interface config mode:

switchport trunk allowed vlan vlans

Make sure that both sides of a trunk link allow the same VLANs.


Verifying a Trunk Link

Two commands you can use to verify your trunk configuration are:

#show running-config
#show interfaces [interface no.] switchport | trunk


Using the trunk keyword with the show interfaces command gives information about the trunk link:

VLAN Implementation

VLANs are used to break large campus networks into smaller pieces. The benefit of this is to minimize the amount of broadcast traffic on a logical segment.

What Is a VLAN?

A virtual LAN (VLAN) is a logical LAN, or a logical subnet. It defines a broadcast domain. A physical subnet is a group of devices that shares the same physical wire. A logical subnet is a group of switch ports assigned to the same VLAN, regardless of their physical location in a switched network.

Two types of VLANs are:

• End-to-end VLAN—VLAN members are assigned by function and can reside on different switches. They are used when hosts are assigned to VLANs based on functions or workgroups, rather than physical location. VLANs should not extend past the Building Distribution submodule. Figure 2-1 shows end-to-end VLANs.
  

• Local VLAN—Hosts are assigned to VLANs based on their location, such as a floor in a building. A router accomplishes sharing of resources between VLANs. This type is typically found in the Building Access submodule. Figure 2-2 shows an example of local VLANs.

End-To-End VlanS


Local VLANS


VLAN membership can be assigned either statically by port or dynamically by MAC address using a VLAN Membership Policy Server (VMPS).

Creating a VLAN in Global Config Mode:

VLANs must be created before they may be used. VLANs may be created in global configuration mode or in VLAN database mode. Creating VLANs in global configuration is easy—just identify the VLAN number and name it!

(config)#vlan 12
(config-vlan)#name MYVLAN


Creating a VLAN in Database Mode

Creating a VLAN in VLAN database mode is very similar to global configuration. There are no advantages to either method. Either method creates an entry in a VLAN.DAT file. Remember that copying the configuration, by itself, does not move the VLAN information! To do that you must move the VLAN.DAT file.

#vlan database
(vlan)#vlan 12 name MYVLAN

Delete a VLAN by using the same command with no in front of it. There is no need to include the name when deleting.


Assigning Ports to VLANs

When statically assigning ports to VLANs, first make it an access port, and then assign the port to a VLAN. At the interface configuration prompt:

(config-if)#switchport mode access
(config-if)#switchport access vlan 12
The commands are similar when using dynamic VLAN assignment. At interface configuration mode:

(config-if)#switchport mode access
(config-if)#switchport access vlan dynamic

If you use dynamic, you must also enter the IP address of the VMPS server at global configuration mode:

(config-if)#vmps server ip address


Verifying VLAN Configuration

To see a list of all the VLANs and the ports assigned to them, use the command show vlan. To narrow down the information displayed, you can use these keywords after the command: brief, id, vlan-number, or name vlan-name:

Other verification commands include:

show running-config interface interface no.—Use the following to verify the VLAN membership of the port:


show mac address-table interface interface no. vlan vlan no.— Use the following to view MAC addresses learned through that port for the specified VLAN:


show interfaces interface no. switchport—Use the following to see detailed information about the port configuration, such as entries in the Administrative Mode and Access Mode VLAN fields:



Troubleshooting VLAN Issues

The following are three steps in troubleshooting VLAN problems:

• Check the physical connectivity—Make sure the cable, the network adapter, and switch port are good. Check the port’s link LED.
  

• Check the switch configuration—If you see FCS errors or late collisions, suspect a duplex mismatch. Also check configured speed on both ends of the link. Increasing collisions can mean an overloaded link, such as with a broadcast storm.
  

• Check the VLAN configuration—If two hosts cannot communicate, make sure they are both in the same VLAN. If a host cannot connect to a switch, make sure the host and the switch are in the same VLAN.

IPv6 Routing

MP-BGP for IPv6

Multiprotocol BGP (RFC 2858) involves two new extensions to BGP4 that allow BGP to carry reachability information for other protocols, such as IPv6, multicast IPv4, and MPLS. The extensions allow NEXT_HOP to carry IPv6 addresses and NLRI (network layer reachability
information) to an IPv6 prefix.

Example 8-5 shows the BGP commands as they might be applied.


OSPFv3

OSPFv3 is one of the first routing protocols available for IPv6 and. Due to its open-standard heritage, it is widely supported in IPv6. OSPFv3 is the only routing protocol discussed on the BSCI test, so it is covered in more depth here.

OSPFv3, which supports IPv6, is documented in RFC 2740. Like OSPFv2, it is a link-state routing protocol that uses the Dijkstra algorithm to select paths. Routers are organized into areas, with all areas touching area 0.

OSPF speakers meet and greet their neighbors using Hellos, exchange LSAs (link-state advertisements) and DBDs (database descriptors), and run SPF against the accumulated link-state database.

OSPFv3 participants use the same packet types as OSPFv2, form neighbors in the same way, flood and age LSAs identically, and support the same NBMA topologies and rare techniques such as NSSA and ondemand circuits.

OSPFv3 differs from its predecessors principally in its new address format. OSPFv3 advertises using multicast addresses FF02::5 and FF02::6, but uses its link-local address as the source address of its advertisements. Authentication is no longer built in, but relies on the underlying capabilities of IPv6.


OSPFv3 LSAs

OSPFv3 and OSPFv2 use a similar set of LSAs, but version 3 has a few changes from OSPFv2. Types 3 and 4 have been slightly renamed, but still fulfill the same functionality as they did with OSPFv2. Type 8 is new and assists in discovering neighbors. Types 1 and 2 no longer
pass routes. Instead they pass router IDs. Prefixes are associated as leaf objects that hang off those nodes and are advertised using Type 9, which is also new.

LSAs are sourced from the link-local address of an interface and destined for a multicast address. FF02::5 is the “all OSPF routers” address and FF02::6 is the “all OSPF DRs” address.

The OSPFv3 LSA types are collected together in Table 8-1. Notice that types one through seven exactly match their OSPFv2 predecessor, while type 8 and type 9 are new to OSPFv3.


Configuration
OSPF configuration is similar to RIPng and EIGRP. The routing process is created and routing properties are assigned to it. Interfaces are then associated with the process under interface configuration mode. Assuming that ipv6 unicast-routing and interface IP addresses are already in place, the commands to implement OSPFv3 are shown in Example 8-6.


Cost may be overridden with the ipv6 ospf cost command as shown in Example 8-7.

The summary-range command is shown to demonstrate summarization.


Troubleshooting
Troubleshoot OSPFv3 just like OSPFv2. Start by looking at show ipv6 route to verify routes have been advertised. Assuming the route is in the routing table, test reachability using ping ipv6. You can also look at the ospf setup using show ipv6 ospf 1 interface, show ipv6
ospf, or show ipv6 ospf database.


Integrating IPv4 and IPv6

There are several strategies for migrating from IPv4 to IPv6. Each of these strategies should be considered when organizations decide to make the move to IPv6 because each has positive points to aiding a smooth migration. It should also be said that there does not have to be a global decision on strategy—your organization may choose to run dual-stack in the U.S., go completely to IPv6 in Japan, and use tunneling in Europe. The transition mechanisms include:

• Dual stack—Running IPv6 and IPv4 concurrently.
  

• IPv6 to IPv4 tunneling (6-to-4)—Routers that straddle the IPv4 and IPv6 worlds to encapsulate the IPv6 traffic inside IPv4 packets.
  

• Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP)—This protocol is similar to 6-to-4, but it treats the IPv4 network as an NBMA network.
  

• Teredo/Shipworm—Encapsulates IPv6 packets in IPv4/UDP segments.

NAT-PT, ALG, and BIA/BIS
Instead of replacing IPv4, there are several ways to coordinate the functioning of IPv4 and v6 concurrently. NAT-protocol translation is an example of this coexistence strategy. NAT-PT maps IPv6 addresses to IPv4 addresses. If IPv6 is used on the inside of your network, a NATPT device will receive IPv6 traffic on its inside interface and replace the IPv6 header with an IPv4 header before sending it to an outside interface. Reply traffic will be able to follow the mapping backward to enable two-way communication. NAT-PT is able to interpret application traffic and understand when IP information is included in the application data. It is also possible to connect IPv4 and IPv6 routing domains using application-level gateways (ALG), proxies, or Bump-in-the-API (BIA) and Bump-in-the-Stack (BIS), which are NAT-PT implementations within a host.

IPv6 Routing

IPv6 is not enabled by default on Cisco routers. To enable IPv6 routing, the command is Router(config)#ipv6 unicast-routing.

After IPv6 is enabled, addresses are assigned to interfaces much like version 4:

Router(config-if)#ipv6 address prefix/prefix-length

To make this less abstract, a more complete example that shows an IPv6 implementation is shown in Example 8-1.


Static Routing

Static routing with IPv6 works exactly like it does with version 4. Aside from understanding the address format, there are no differences. Static routes are not currently on the BSCI test. The syntax for the IPv6 static route command is shown below, and Example 8-2 is supplied so that the command may be viewed in context as it might be applied.

Router(config)# ipv6 route ipv6-prefix/prefix-length {ipv6-address | interface-type interface-number [ipv6-address]} [administrativedistance] [administrative-multicast-distance | unicast | multicast] [tag tag]


RIPng for IPv6

RIPng is the IPv6 of RIP and is defined in RFC 2080. Like RIPv2 for IPv4, RIPng is a distance vector routing protocol that uses a hop count for its metric and has a maximum hop count of 15. RIPng also uses periodic multicast updates—every 30 seconds—to advertise routes. The multicast address is FF02::9.

RIPng is not on the BSCI exam at present, but it is presented here for completeness and to round out your appreciation for IPv6 routing and to prepare the reader for trial implementations of IPv6.

There are two important differences between the old RIP and the nextgeneration RIP. First, RIPng supports multiple concurrent processes, each identified by a process number (this is similar to OSPFv2). Second, RIPng is initialized in global configuration mode and then
enabled on specific interfaces.

Example 8-3 shows the syntax used to apply RIPng to a configuration. Notice that the syntax is very similar to traditional RIP.


Like RIP for IPv4, troubleshoot RIPng by looking at the routing table (show ipv6 route), by reviewing the routing protocols (show ipv6 protocols), and by watching routing updates propagated between routers (debug ipv6 rip).


EIGRP
EIGRP has been expanded to support IPv6, although you’ll need to verify that a specific version of IOS is capable of doing this. EIGRP for IPv6 is based on the IPv4 version. EIGRP is still an advanced distance vector routing protocol that uses a complex metric. EIGRP still has a reliable update mechanism and uses DUAL to retain fall-back paths. Like EIGRP in IPv4, it sends multicast hellos every five seconds (but the multicast address is now FF02::A). EIGRP is enabled as described in the following:

Router(config)#ipv6 router eigrp as
Router(config-rtr)#router-id ipv4-address|ipv6-address
Router(config-rtr)#interface type number
Router(config-if)#ipv6 eigrp as

Like EIGRP for IPv4, troubleshoot by looking at the routing table (show ipv6 route), by reviewing the routing protocols (show ipv6 protocols), and by monitoring neighbors (show ipv6 eigrp neighbors). Example 8-4 shows the configuration for IPv6 EIGRP. Notice that the
routing protocol must be enabled under each interface.