Summary

This chapter discussed recent and emerging technologies and their possible impact on broadband access.

IPv6 is in many ways quite mature from the standpoint of standards definition, but it has seen limited deployment. The chapter discussed three possible scenarios involving enterprise, retail, and wholesale network migration to IPv6. As a general rule, any protocol that processed IP addresses in some shape or form must be "upgraded" to work in an IPv6 network. This includes RADIUS AAA records and DHCP also.

L2VPN for packet networks is still in the discussion stage at the standards bodies, but commercial services are already available. Apart from discussing the distinction between L2 pseudo-wire and L2VPN service, the main conclusion here was that there will probably be a very limited impact on residential subscribers, who are primarily interested in Layer 3 service, unless it is for some very specific, closed user group scenario. L2 business services are currently and will continue to be offered over broadband access.