Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6)

Segment Routing over IPv6 (SRv6) is mostly a solution in search of a problem, reimplementing source routing with various forms of IPv6 extension headers. Not surprisingly, its vocal proponents sell it as the ultimate solution to all networking problems.

Is It Useful?

Is it useful to have yet another tunneling mechanism with source routing capabilities? Here are a few thoughts:

• SRv6: One Tool to Rule Them All
• SR-MPLS or SRv6 for Greenfield Networks
• BGP, EVPN, VXLAN, or SRv6?
• The Benefits of SRv6

No, It Is Not

Quite a few people (myself included) came to the conclusion that SRv6 makes little sense:

• Segment Routing Anyone?
• SR(x)6 - Snake Oil Or Salvation?
• Non-Standard Standards, SRv6 Edition
• SRv6 as a Host-to-Host Overlay

Potential Use Cases

A few people (besides vendor Distinguished Marketing Engineers) have proposed potentially interesting SRv6 use cases:

• Do We Need Segment Routing?
• SwiNOG 40: Application-Based Source Routing with SRv6

Still want to try out SRv6?

• SRv6 Test Topologies

More Information

• We implemented SRv6 in netlab. You can try it out on Cisco IOS XE, Cisco IOS XR, Nokia SR OS, and FRRouting.
• Browse netlab SRv6 integration tests for sample lab topologies.
• Tiziano Tofoni covered SRv6 basics in his ITNOG10 workshop
• @eldananivas collected numerous SRv6-related links into an open-source SRv6 knowledge base.