Introduction

The routing of IPv6 traffic has changed significantly. New versions of routing protocols have been developed to support dynamic routing on IPv6 networks, because there have been only a few routing protocols built into the Cisco IOS to this point. The Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS), and the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) have been updated and built into the Cisco IOS already, and new versions of Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) will be supported with future releases of the IOS.

Routing IPv6 remains as complex as it was with IPv4, but it has been enhanced to support the enhanced addressing characteristics of IPv6. Configuring a network for a dynamic routing protocol has long been a task required of network engineers and designers and it will remain a valued skill with IPv6. This chapter outlines the necessary steps to configure each supported routing protocol and explores the details of how each protocol operates on the network.