Testing Overview

IPv6 Ready certification requires the product to pass both protocol conformance testing and interoperability testing. Interoperability testing is carried out in multi-vendor network environments to verify neighbour discovery, address configuration, routing and forwarding, and typical service interworking between different implementations, to assess the product’s deployability in real networks and to locate and help remediate interoperability issues.

Applicable Product Scope

Network equipment such as routers and layer-3 switches, terminal and gateway products, security equipment such as firewalls, and operating systems and embedded components that provide IPv6 protocol stack implementations. Multi-vendor mixed-network scenarios can be customised to the client’s actual network.

Testing Content

• RFC 4861 neighbour discovery: address resolution, neighbour unreachability detection, router advertisement and prefix announcement
• RFC 4862 stateless address autoconfiguration and duplicate address detection
• RFC 8201 / 1981 path MTU discovery and fragmentation handling
• RFC 4443 ICMPv6 error message and informational message handling
• RFC 8200 IPv6 basic packet and extension header handling
• Routing and forwarding and typical service interworking in multi-vendor mixed topologies

Applicable Standards

• IPv6 Ready Logo Program Phase-2 Test Specification (interoperability test scenarios)
• ETSI TS 102 514 Methods for Testing and Specification (MTS); Internet Protocol Testing (IPT): IPv6 Core Protocol

Test Duration and Sample Requirements

Interoperability testing is based on multi-vendor networking, so the duration depends on the network scale and the number of participating vendors and is generally scheduled together with products of the same batch. Samples are devices with complete IPv6 functionality; the quantity should cover the declared interfaces and roles (host, router and so on), and cross-vendor networking equipment can be coordinated by the laboratory.

Our Capabilities

We have a multi-vendor IPv6 interoperability test environment and device pool, can customise topology and service scenarios for the target network, deliver interoperability issue localisation and remediation advice, and support retesting after remediation — providing a basis for IPv6 Ready certification and actual deployment.