Dan White wrote:
I don't recall if Pannaway is a layer 3 or layer 2 DSLAM, but we have a mix of Calix C7 (ATM) and Calix E5 (Ethernet) gear in our network. We're kinda in the same boat, but we expect to be able to gracefully transition to dual stacked IPv4/IPv6 without having to replace DSL modems, by reconfiguring the modems into bridged mode and leaving the layer 3 up to the customer's router.
We're also in the process of budgeting for a new broadband aggregation router next year that will handle IPv6. Ask Pannaway if they can bridge traffic (either ATM PVC, or Ethernet QinQ/VLAN per subscriber) up to a broadband aggregator, like a Redback or Cisco.
In Pannaway's case they want to pretend to be in the router business and we ended up buying their BARs. Their DSLAMs (BASs) are aggregated into their BARs and the BAR ring terminates on my Cisco core. I would love to eliminate the BARs from the equation but that's not an option. I've been by several (dozen) people that their Minnesota Pannaway office stopped selling the BARs and instead worked with Cisco for aggregation. I've also been told by Cisco folks that numerous sites are trying to get Cisco to take the Pannaway BARs in on trade-in. It would appear that no one like the BARs. Occam did it right. They didn't try to pretend to be in the router business. They stuck with L2. We're also in a bit of a pickle because we're using "smart" DSL modems/routers. I've argued for years for dumb DSL modems that had no routing/NAT capabilities at all. Unfortunately I didn't win that argument. Now we have what amount to CPEs that do not support IPv6. Whether they'll even pass IPv6 packets in a bridging mode is yet to be determined. Since some of the modems are Pannaway and given my experience with Pannaway and trying to bridge things over it without Pannaway messing with it in the middle (VLAN carrying IS-IS for example), I fully expect problems... It's no secret; I do not recommend Pannaway products based on my firsthand experience. Their SE actually told us 2 years ago that IPv6 was a fad and would never be adopted. Justin