Thursday, October 09, 2008
BT's 21st Century Network apparently not ready 20th Century internet protocol
The next generation internet protocol IPv6 which has been specified since 1998 and is increasing used within the internet and corporate networks is not "supported" by BT's wholesale broadband products.
Even though BT recently launched so called "21st Century Network" products using new fast ADSL2+ links, BT have today stated that "BT currently supports IPv4 on it's Broadband products and does not support IPv6".
The specification for BT's new 21CN products is clear that it allows ISPs to pass packets to and from their end users using point to point protocol (PPP) which would allow ISPs to offer IPv6.
The whole issue has come about because of a bug in CISCO equipment which BT use which is affecting use of IPv6 for some of AAISP's customers. It only affects some of BT's network. Even though we believe this bug was identified and fixed by CISCO a long time ago, BT appear to be refusing to rectify the problem, preferring to simply say they do not support IPv6.
AAISP provide IPv6 services natively and via IPv4, and have done for many years. Tunneled IPv6 works in all cases, and native IPv6 works in some cases where this bug is not affecting it. In some ways the issue is more commercial than technical - IPv6 mostly works, but BT appear to be saying that if it stops working then they won't fix it.
"We have asked BT to formally confirm they will pass all PPP packets on the 21CN network as per BT's specifications, which would allow native IPv6"
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1 Follow-up Messages (Posted by AAISP Staff):
Followups removed as they are covered more clearly in our news page on the subject. This explains the nature of the issue both technically and commercially.
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