Comcast IPv6 Update

Jim Burwell jimb at jsbc.cc
Fri Jun 1 19:25:54 UTC 2012


On 6/1/2012 11:06, Seth Mattinen wrote:
> On 6/1/12 7:04 AM, Brzozowski, John wrote:
>> Jimmy,
>>
>> Trust me, I work for Comcast and run the IPv6 program.  This has been the
>> case for nearly 7 years.  We can take some of the items below off list.
>>
>> We have launched IPv6 for residential broadband at this time.  Commercial
>> DOCSIS support is later this year.
>>
>> We can do two things.  Get you a residential trial kit so you can have
>> IPv6 for W6L and make sure I have your information for when we start
>> trials for commercial DOCSIS support for IPv6.
>>
>
> Forgive me if this is a stupid question since I've never been a cable
> guy, but what's physical difference between residential and commercial coax?
>
> ~Seth
>
I'm a Comcast biz customer, mostly so I can have static IPs.

I believe the main differences are that biz class has a different group
of people supporting it and provisioning it.  They also use different
CPE.  Probably also use different VLANs and such past the head end.  But
for biz class customers on cable, it uses the same underlying
infrastructure as residential.

I'm mostly speculating here, but I'd think a big hurdle for getting IPv6
service on biz class is in coming up with the
support/provisioning/logistics infrastructure  to support biz customers
with IPv6.  The residential customers have less control over the CPE
than business class, likely making it easier for comcast to make changes
for residential service.  Comcast can update the CPE image, start
running DHCPv6, and voila.  But biz customers routers are somewhat
configurable, and many biz class customers run their own
routers/firewalls behind the comcast CPE (as do some residential
customers also, of course), likely making things more complicated.  I'd
speculate that all the technical pieces are there to do it, but the
logistical/support/management pieces probably aren't ready yet.

Obviously, only the Comcast guys on here (John and Jason) know the whole
story.   But I'm patiently waiting for my native v6!  It'll happen
eventually.   :-)




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