IPv6 on SOHO routers?

Thu Mar 13 01:11:25 UTC 2008

On 13/03/2008, at 11:30 AM, Valdis.Kletnieks at vt.edu wrote:

> On Wed, 12 Mar 2008 15:06:24 CDT, Frank Bulk - iNAME said:
>> Slightly off-topic, but tangentially related that I'll dare to ask.
>>
>> I'm attending an "Emerging Communications" course where the  
>> instructor
>> stated that there are SOHO routers that natively support IPv6,  
>> pointing to
>> Asia specifically.
>
> Well, of *course* you're more likely to find such SOHO routers in  
> markets where
> a SOHO router owner might actually be able to use the feature.  But  
> in most
> parts of the US, IPv6 support in a SOHO router is right up there  
> with GOSIP
> compliance as far as actual usefulness goes...

Yup.  If you look at the devices claimed to be IPv6 CPE in Asian
markets, they're inevitably Ethernet-only, to be used on networks
where the customer is provided with an Ethernet jack in their home
or apartment complex.

Those of us who use ADSL or (heaven forbid) Cable are kinda out of luck.
I haven't yet found ADSL2+ CPE that does IPv6 over PPPoE or PPPoA out
of the box.

(Billion in Taiwan has a device which they've stamped an "IPv6 Ready"
sticker onto, but the IPv6 version of the software hasn't left the
confines of their lab yet)

As far as I've been able to determine, IPv6 SOHO CPE is largely
vaporware right now.  And lets not even get started on residential
grade CPE, that doesn't even appear to be on most vendors' radar
_at all_.  If anything useful is going to happen in this space,
my guess is that it'll be with custom Linux firmware running on
a LinkSys blob with no vendor support.

   - mark

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