becarpenter-book6/1. Introduction and Foreword/How a network operations center sees IPv6.md

## How a network operations center sees IPv6

This is really the topic of this entire book. In the long term, we
expect that "running an IPv6 network" will be synonymous with "running a
network". IPv6 should not be viewed as an add-on, but as the primary
network protocol. How it coexists and interacts with IPv4 is the subject
of
[Chapter 3](https://github.com/becarpenter/book6/tree/main/3.%20Coexistence%20with%20legacy%20IPv4).
This section gives an overview of how IPv6 looks when viewed from the
NOC, and the rest of the book covers the details.

IPv6 is at its roots not fundamentally different from IPv4 - just
different in almost every detail. So the _nature_ of NOC design
and operation is not changed by IPv6, but existing operations
and management tools need to be updated. For example, any 
configuration databases, whether home-grown or purchased,
must be able to handle IPv6. For operators, there are many
new details to learn. Also, supporting IPv4 and IPv6
simultaneously is obviously more complicated than supporting
only one protocol.

Enterprise networks, carrier networks, and data center networks each
have their own requirements and challenges, with differing geographical
spreads, availability requirements, etc. Various chapters of this
book tackle different aspects of NOC operations:
[5. Network Design](5.%20Network%20Design/5.%20Network%20Design.md),
[6. Management and Operations](6.%20Management%20and%20Operations/6.%20Management%20and%20Operations.md), 
[9. Troubleshooting](9.%20Troubleshooting/9.%20Troubleshooting.md).
The
[7. Case Studies](7.%20Case%20Studies/7.%20Case%20Studies.md)
will also be relevant to NOCs.

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