IPv6 Product Certification Program
The IPv6 Ready Logo program is a product certification program to increase user confidence that IPv6 is ready to be used and deployed. The program is created and maintained by the IPv6 Forum, an open international forum comprising ISPs, product vendors, IPv6 subject matter experts, and research & educational institutes to drive the IPv6 deployment around the world.
The program comprises of basic (IPv6 Core Protocols) and advanced (Extended IPv6 Protocols) certifications. The program also validates the interoperability of an IPv6-node in an IPv6-only environment and conformance to various IPv6 RFCs. A product can be certified as an IPv6 Host, Router, or as a Special Device. The testing is conducted using specifications developed by the IPv6 Ready Logo approved laboratories, which are frequently updated to cover the requirements of the latest IPv6 standards.
Recent updates to the IPv6 Ready Logo program include two major changes.
- Updates to Standards: RFC 8200 and RFC 8201 were included in the test specifications by obsoleting requirements from RFC 2460 and RFC 1981, respectively. Interoperability tests were expanded to include the processing of Router Advertisement options such as Route preference, Route Information Options, and DNSv6.
- Testing only by Approved Labs: It is now mandatory for the devices to have IPv6-enabled on all L3 interfaces and that testing for the certification has to be carried out in an IPv6-only environment. For this to be adequately implemented, it was decided by the IPv6 Ready Logo Committee to remove the Self-Test option as the path for product vendors to obtain certification. Certification testing for IPv6 Ready Logo now needs to be conducted by any of the seven approved laboratories globally.
IPv6 Regulatory Compliance Requirements
In the previous parts of this blog series, we were introduced to IPv6 related regulatory requirements from TEC (India) and USGv6 program (USA). We will now discuss in detail, the various IPv6 regulatory requirements around the globe.
India:
The MTCTE Scheme by Govt. of India requires that every telecom equipment sold, imported, or manufactured in India, be tested and certified for Essential Requirements (ERs) prescribed by Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC, India), before being sold in the Indian market.
As part of the ERs, IPv6 is one of the critical requirements prescribed for almost all telecom equipment that supports Layer 3 termination. These include Routers, L3 Switches, UTM, IPS & IDS equipment, Firewalls, GPON equipment, Mobile Phones, and IoT gateways.
As a regulatory authority, TEC has taken this step to ensure that all telecom equipment support a compliant IPv6 stack, given that major telecom operators in India (like Reliance Jio) have operationalized IPv6 deployment on a large scale. The move will also boost the adoption and implementation of IPv6 in India. By sheer numbers, India is leading the charts with more than 350 million IPv6 users.
For most products, conformance to RFC 8200 is a crucial requirement. For Routers, RFC 4861, 4862, 8201, and 4443 are additional RFCs that the product must comply with.
More information about the scheme is available at https://www.mtcte.tec.gov.in/
United States of America:
The USGv6 program aims to increase the wide-scale adoption of IPv6 in the US government’s infrastructure. NIST (US) has developed the technical standards profile comprising basic IPv6 standards, specific functional requirements, and vital optional requirements such as routing, security, multicast, network management, and QoS. Laboratories have been accredited for the testing of these technical profiles. NIST’s IPv6 Profile defines the IPv6 capabilities that should be supported by the devices for meeting compliance requirements. The Profile is then combined with User-group Profile, which contains specific user requirements to facilitate the adoption of IPv6 technologies more efficiently.
The USGv6 Profile is a derivative of the NIST IPv6 Profile, to be used for the USGv6 test program. The well-defined technical specifications provide in-detail information required for product vendors to understand this program’s testing requirements.
More information is available at https://www.nist.gov/programs-projects/usgv6-program
Malaysia
Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission has formulated regulatory requirements related to IPv6 in Malaysia in collaboration with industrial stakeholders. The specifications comprise core IPv6 protocols and support for features such as security, mobility, dual-stack, QoS, migration schemes, tunneling, and DNS. The specs also define the translation and transition mechanisms to be used along with Inter-ISP connectivity guidelines.
The compliance activity is carried out by vendors submitting a self-declaration form to the regulator, and frequent audits are conducted by the regulator to verify compliance. The product vendors can self-test or test through IPv6 labs to verify their IPv6 stack and submit the declaration form to the regulator.
More information is available at https://www.mcmc.gov.my/skmmgovmy/media/General/pdf/MCMC-MTSFB-TC-T013-2019-IPv6-Equipment-Compliance-First-Revision.pdf
Europe
Various countries in the European Union, such as Belgium, France, Germany, and Finland, have their individual IPv6 regulatory requirements that mostly comprise of core IPv6 protocols in addition to other features such as security, mobility, and QoS. The national regulatory authorities in these countries ensure that compliance requirements are adequately addressed and that the devices have been tested according to technical specifications developed by the regulators.
Studies have shown that the top 15 economies globally contribute to more than 95% global IPv6 usage. With encouragement from the governments through regulations and workshops, the transition to IPv6 has significantly evolved in the last couple of years. By 2025, it is estimated that more than 80% of the internet will be IPv6-only. With IPv6 forum approved labs spread across the globe, the testing infrastructure keeps pace with the deployment scenarios.
In the next part of this blog series, we will discuss IPv6 as a critical enabler in the IoT domain and the relevance of IPv6 in 5G networks. Stay tuned.
Source: https://medium.com/@kklahoti/ipv6-standardization-and-compliance-part-iii-5d953eeb43ad
