Label to identify a network interface of a computer or other network node
Decomposition of an IPv6 address into its binary form
An Internet Protocol version 6 address (IPv6 address) is a numeric label that is used to identify and locate a network interface of a computer or a network node participating in a computer network using IPv6. IP addresses are included in the packet header to indicate the source and the destination of each packet. The IP address of the destination is used to make decisions about routing IP packets to other networks.
IPv6 is the successor to the first addressing infrastructure of the Internet, Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). In contrast to IPv4, which defined an IP address as a 32-bit value, IPv6 addresses have a size of 128 bits. Therefore, in comparison, IPv6 has a vastly enlarged address space.
Addressing methods
IPv6 addresses are classified by the primary addressing and routing methodologies common in networking: unicast addressing, anycast addressing, and multicast addressing.[1]
A unicast address identifies a single network interface. The Internet Protocol delivers packets sent to a unicast address to that specific interface.
An anycast address is assigned to a group of interfaces, usually belonging to different nodes. A packet sent to an anycast address is delivered to just one of the member interfaces, typically the nearest host, according to the routing protocol's definition of distance. Anycast addresses cannot be identified easily, they have the same format as unicast addresses, and differ only by their presence in the network at multiple points. Almost any unicast address can be employed as an anycast address.
A multicast address is also used by multiple hosts that acquire the multicast address destination by participating in the multicast distribution protocol among the network routers. A packet that is sent to a multicast address is delivered to all interfaces that have joined the corresponding multicast group. IPv6 does not implement broadcast addressing. Broadcast's traditional role is subsumed by multicast addressing to the all-nodes link-local multicast group ff02::1. However, the use of the all-nodes group is not recommended, and most IPv6 protocols use protocol-specific link-local multicast groups to avoid disturbing every interface on a given network.
Address formats
An IPv6 address consists of 128 bits.[1] For each of the major addressing and routing methodologies, various address formats are recognized by dividing the 128 address bits into bit groups and using established rules for associating the values of these bit groups with special addressing features.
Unicast and anycast address format
Unicast and anycast addresses are typically composed of two logical parts: a 64-bit network prefix used for routing, and a 64-bit interface identifier used to identify a host's network interface.
General unicast address format (routing prefix size varies)
bits
48 (or more)
16 (or fewer)
64
field
routing prefix
subnet ID
interface identifier
The network prefix (the routing prefix combined with the subnet ID) is contained in the most significant 64 bits of the address. The size of the routing prefix may vary; a larger prefix size means a smaller subnet ID size. The bits of the subnet ID field are available to the network administrator to define subnets within the given network. The 64-bit interface identifier is automatically established randomly, obtained from a DHCPv6 server, or assigned manually. (Historically, it was automatically generated from the interface's MAC address using the modified EUI-64 format, but this method is now not recommended for privacy reasons.[2])
The prefix field contains the binary value 1111110. The L bit is one for locally assigned addresses; the address range with L set to zero is currently not defined. The random field is chosen randomly once, at the inception of the /48 routing prefix.
A link-local address is also based on the interface identifier, but uses a different format for the network prefix.
Link-local address format
bits
10
54
64
field
prefix
zeroes
interface identifier
The prefix field contains the binary value 1111111010. The 54 zeroes that follow make the total network prefix the same for all link-local addresses (fe80::/64link-local address prefix), rendering them non-routable.
The four-bit scope field (sc) is used to indicate where the address is valid and unique.
In addition, the scope field is used to identify special multicast addresses, like solicited node.
Solicited-node multicast address format
bits
8
4
4
79
9
24
field
prefix
flg
sc
zeroes
ones
unicast address
The sc(ope) field holds the binary value 0010 (link-local). Solicited-node multicast addresses are computed as a function of a node's unicast or anycast addresses. A solicited-node multicast address is created by copying the last 24 bits of a unicast or anycast address to the last 24 bits of the multicast address.
Link-scoped multicast addresses use a comparable format.[6]
Representation
An IPv6 address is represented as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits, each group representing 16 bits[a] The groups are separated by colons (:). An example of an IPv6 address is:
2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
The standards provide flexibility in the representation of IPv6 addresses. The full representation of eight four-digit groups may be simplified by several techniques, eliminating parts of the representation. In general, representations are shortened as much as possible. However, this practice complicates several common operations, namely searching for a specific address or an address pattern in text documents or streams, and comparing addresses to determine equivalence. For mitigation of these complications, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has defined a canonical format for rendering IPv6 addresses in text:[9]
The hexadecimal digits are always compared in case-insensitive manner, but IETF recommendations suggest the use of only lower case letters. For example, 2001:db8::1 is preferred over 2001:DB8::1;
Leading zeros in each 16-bit field are suppressed, but each group must retain at least one digit. For example, 2001:0db8::0001:0000 is rendered as 2001:db8::1:0;
The longest sequence of consecutive all-zero fields is replaced with two colons (::). If the address contains multiple runs of all-zero fields of the same size, to prevent ambiguities, it is the leftmost that is compressed. For example, 2001:db8:0:0:1:0:0:1 is rendered as 2001:db8::1:0:0:1 rather than as 2001:db8:0:0:1::1. :: is not used to represent just a single all-zero field. For example, 2001:db8:0:0:0:0:2:1 is shortened to 2001:db8::2:1, but 2001:db8:0000:1:1:1:1:1 is rendered as 2001:db8:0:1:1:1:1:1.
These methods can lead to very short representations for IPv6 addresses. For example, the localhost (loopback) address, 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1, and the IPv6 unspecified address, 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0, are reduced to ::1 and ::, respectively.
During the transition of the Internet from IPv4 to IPv6, it is typical to operate in a mixed addressing environment. For such use cases, a special notation has been introduced, which expresses IPv4-mapped and IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses by writing the least-significant 32 bits of an address in the familiar IPv4 dot-decimal notation, whereas the 96 most-significant bits are written in IPv6 format. For example, the IPv4-mapped IPv6 address ::ffff:c000:0280 is written as ::ffff:192.0.2.128, thus expressing clearly the original IPv4 address that was mapped to IPv6.
Networks
An IPv6 network uses an address block that is a contiguous group of IPv6 addresses of a size that is a power of two. The leading set of bits of the addresses are identical for all hosts in a given network, and are called the network's address or routing prefix.
Network address ranges are written in CIDR notation. A network is denoted by the first address in the block (ending in all zeroes), a slash (/), and a decimal value equal to the size in bits of the prefix. For example, the network written as 2001:db8:1234::/48 starts at address 2001:db8:1234:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000 and ends at 2001:db8:1234:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff.
The routing prefix of an interface address may be directly indicated with the address using CIDR notation. For example, the configuration of an interface with address 2001:db8:a::123 connected to subnet 2001:db8:a::/64 is written as 2001:db8:a::123/64.
Address block sizes
The size of a block of addresses is specified by writing a slash (/) followed by a number in decimal whose value is the length of the network prefix in bits. For example, an address block with 48 bits in the prefix is indicated by /48. Such a block contains 2128 − 48 = 280 addresses. The smaller the length of the network prefix, the larger the block: a /21 block is 8 times larger than a /24 block.
Literal IPv6 addresses in network resource identifiers
Colon (:) characters in IPv6 addresses may conflict with the established syntax of resource identifiers, such as URIs and URLs. The colon is conventionally used to terminate the host path before a port number.[10] To alleviate this conflict, literal IPv6 addresses are enclosed in square brackets in such resource identifiers, for example:
http://[2001:db8:85a3:8d3:1319:8a2e:370:7348]/
When the URL also contains a port number the notation is:
where the trailing 443 is the example's port number.
Scoped literal IPv6 addresses (with zone index)
For addresses with other than global scope (as described in §Address scopes), and in particular for link-local addresses, the choice of the network interface for sending a packet may depend on which zone the address belongs to. The same address may be valid in different zones, and in use by a different host in each of those zones. Even if a single address is not in use in different zones, the address prefixes for addresses in those zones may still be identical, which makes the operating system unable to select an outgoing interface based on the information in the routing table (which is prefix-based).
In order to resolve the ambiguity in textual addresses, a zone index must be appended to the address. The zone index is separated from the address by a percent sign (%).[11] Although numeric zone indices must be universally supported, the zone index may also be an implementation-dependent string. The link-local address
The former (using an interface name) is customary on most Unix-like operating systems (e.g., BSD, Linux, macOS).[12] The latter (using an interface number) is the only syntax on Microsoft Windows, but as support for this syntax is mandatory per standard, it is also available on other operating systems.[c]
BSD-based operating systems (including macOS) also support an alternative, non-standard syntax, where a numeric zone index is encoded in the second 16-bit word of the address. E.g.:
fe80:3::1ff:fe23:4567:890a
In all operating systems mentioned above, the zone index for link-local addresses actually refers to an interface, not to a zone. As multiple interfaces may belong to the same zone (e.g. when connected to the same network), in practice two addresses with different zone identifiers may actually be equivalent, and refer to the same host on the same link.[d]
In Microsoft Windows operating systems, IPv4 addresses are valid location identifiers in Uniform Naming Convention (UNC) path names. However, the colon is an illegal character in a UNC path name. Thus, the use of IPv6 addresses is also illegal in UNC names. For this reason, Microsoft implemented a transcription algorithm to represent an IPv6 address in the form of a domain name that can be used in UNC paths. For this purpose, Microsoft registered and reserved the second-level domainipv6-literal.net on the Internet (although they gave up the domain in January 2014[14]). IPv6 addresses are transcribed as a hostname or subdomain name within this namespace, in the following fashion:
This notation is automatically resolved locally by Microsoft software, without any queries to DNS name servers.
If the IPv6 address contains a zone index, it is appended to the address portion after an 's' character:
fe80::1ff:fe23:4567:890a%3
is written as
fe80--1ff-fe23-4567-890as3.ipv6-literal.net
Address scopes
Every IPv6 address, except the unspecified address (::), has a scope,[11] which specifies in which part of the network it is valid.
Unicast
For unicast addresses, two scopes are defined: link-local and global.
Link-local addresses and the loopback address have link-local scope, which means they can only be used on a single directly attached network. All other addresses (including unique local addresses) have global (or universal) scope, which means they are potentially globally routable and can be used to connect to addresses with global scope anywhere, or to addresses with link-local scope on the directly attached network.
Unique local addresses have global scope, but they are not globally administered. As a result, only other hosts in the same administrative domain (e.g., an organization), or within a cooperating administrative domain are able to reach such addresses, if properly routed. As their scope is global, these addresses are valid as a source address when communicating with any other global-scope address, even though it may be impossible to route packets from the destination back to the source.
Anycast
Anycast addresses are syntactically identical to and indistinguishable from unicast addresses. Their only difference is administrative. Scopes for anycast addresses are therefore the same as for unicast addresses.
Multicast
For multicast addresses, the four least-significant bits of the second address octet (ff0s::) identify the address scope, i.e. the domain in which the multicast packet should be propagated. Predefined and reserved scopes are:
Interface-local scope spans only a single interface on a node, and is useful only for loopback transmission of multicast.
0x2
link-local
Link-local scope spans the same topological region as the corresponding unicast scope.
0x3
realm-local
Realm-local scope is defined as larger than link-local, automatically determined by network topology and must not be larger than the following scopes.[15]
0x4
admin-local
Admin-local scope is the smallest scope that must be administratively configured, i.e., not automatically derived from physical connectivity or other, non-multicast-related configuration.
0x5
site-local
Site-local scope is intended to span a single site belonging to an organisation.
0x8
organization-local
Organization-local scope is intended to span all sites belonging to a single organization.
0xe
global
Global scope spans all reachable nodes on the Internet–it is unbounded.
0xf
reserved
All other scopes are unassigned and available to administrators for defining additional regions.
In order to allow efficient route aggregation, thereby reducing the size of the Internet routing tables, only one-eighth of the total address space (2000::/3) is currently allocated for use on the Internet. The rest of the IPv6 address space is reserved for future use or for special purposes. The address space is assigned to the RIRs in blocks of /23 up to /12.[18]
The RIRs assign smaller blocks to local Internet registries that distribute them to users. These are typically in sizes from /19 to /32.[19][20][21] Global unicast assignment records can be found at the various RIRs or other websites.[22]
The addresses are then typically distributed in /48 to /56 sized blocks to the end users.[23] IPv6 addresses are assigned to organizations in much larger blocks as compared to IPv4 address assignments—the recommended allocation is a /48 block which contains 280 addresses, being 248 or about 2.8×1014 times larger than the entire IPv4 address space of 232 addresses and about 7.2×1016 times larger than the /8 blocks of IPv4 addresses, which are the largest allocations of IPv4 addresses. The total pool, however, is sufficient for the foreseeable future, because there are 2128 (exactly 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456) or about 3.4×1038 (340 undecillion) unique IPv6 addresses.
Each RIR can divide each of its multiple /23 blocks into 512 /32 blocks, typically one for each ISP; an ISP can divide its /32 block into 65536/48 blocks, typically one for each customer;[24] customers can create 65536/64 networks from their assigned /48 block, each having 264 (18,446,744,073,709,551,616) addresses. In contrast, the entire IPv4 address space has only 232 (exactly 4,294,967,296 or about 4.3×109) addresses.
By design, only a small fraction of the address space will be used actively. The large address space ensures that addresses are almost always available, which makes the use of network address translation (NAT) for the purposes of address conservation unnecessary. NAT has been increasingly used for IPv4 networks to help alleviate IPv4 address exhaustion.
Special allocation
Provider-independent address space is assigned directly to the end user by the RIRs from the special range 2001:678::/29 and allows customers to make provider changes without renumbering their networks.
Internet exchange points (IXPs) are assigned special addresses from the ranges 2001:7f8::/32, 2001:504::/30, and 2001:7fa::/32[25] for communication with their connected ISPs.
The lowest address within each subnet prefix (the interface identifier set to all zeroes) is reserved as the subnet-router anycast address.[1] Applications may use this address when talking to any one of the available routers, as packets sent to this address are delivered to just one router.
The 128 highest addresses within each /64 subnet prefix are reserved to be used as anycast addresses.[27] These addresses usually have the first 57 bits of the interface identifier set to 1, followed by the 7-bit anycast ID. Prefixes for the network can be of any length for routing purposes, but subnets are required to have a length of 64 bits. The address with value 0x7e in the 7 least-significant bits is defined as a mobile IPv6 home agents anycast address. The address with value 0x7f (all bits 1) is reserved and may not be used. No more assignments from this range have been made, so all the remaining values, 0x00 through 0x7d, are reserved as well.
There are a number of addresses with special meaning in IPv6.[28] The IANA maintains a registry of these special-purpose addresses.[29] They represent less than 2% of the entire address space:
Special address blocks
Address block (CIDR)
First address
Last address
Number of addresses
Usage
Purpose
::/128
::
::
1
Software
Unspecified address
::1/128
::1
::1
1
Host
Loopback address—a virtual interface that loops all traffic back to itself, the local host
::/128–The address with all zero bits is called the unspecified address (corresponding to 0.0.0.0/32 in IPv4). This address must never be assigned to an interface and is to be used only in software before the application has learned its host's source address appropriate for a pending connection. Routers must not forward packets with the unspecified address.
Applications may listen on one or more specific interfaces for incoming connections, which are shown in listings of active internet connections by a specific IP address (and a port number, separated by a colon). When the unspecified address is shown it means that an application is listening for incoming connections on all available interfaces.
In routing table configuration, the unspecified address may be used to represent the default route address (corresponding to 0.0.0.0/0 in IPv4) for destination addresses (unicast, multicast and others) not specified elsewhere in a routing table.
Local addresses
::1/128–The loopback address is a unicast localhost address. This address corresponds to 127.0.0.1/8 in IPv4. If an application in a host sends packets to this address, the IPv6 stack loops these packets back on the same virtual interface.
fe80::/10–Addresses in the link-local prefix are only valid and unique on the local subnet. This address range is comparable to the auto-configuration addresses 169.254.0.0/16 of IPv4. Within this prefix only one /64 subnet is allocated (there are 54 zero bits), yielding an effective format of fe80::/64. The least significant 64 bits were previously chosen as the interface hardware address constructed in modified EUI-64 format, but are now pseudo-random values for privacy. A link-local address is required on every IPv6-enabled interface and applications may rely on the existence of a link-local address even when there is no IPv6 routing.
Unique local addresses
fc00::/7 — Unique local addresses (ULAs) are intended for local communication[39] (comparable to IPv4 private addresses10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12 and 192.168.0.0/16). They are routable only within a set of cooperating sites. The block is split into two halves. The lower half of the block (fc00::/8) was intended for globally allocated prefixes, but an allocation method has yet to be defined. The upper half (fd00::/8) is used for probabilistically unique addresses in which the /8 prefix is combined with a 40-bit locally generated pseudorandom number to obtain a /48 private prefix. The procedure for selecting a 40-bit number results in only a negligible chance that two sites that wish to merge or communicate encounter address collisions, but can use the same /48 prefix.[39]
Transition from IPv4
::ffff:0:0/96 — This prefix is used for IPv6 transition mechanisms and designated as an IPv4-mapped IPv6 address. With a few exceptions, this address type allows the transparent use of the transport layer protocols over IPv4 through the IPv6 networking application programming interface. In this dual-stack configuration, server applications only need to open a single listening socket to handle connections from clients using IPv6 or IPv4 protocols. IPv6 clients are handled natively by default, and IPv4 clients appear as IPv6 clients at their IPv4-mapped IPv6 address. Transmission is handled similarly; established sockets may be used to transmit IPv4 or IPv6 datagram, based on the binding to an IPv6 address, or an IPv4-mapped address.
64:ff9b::/96 — The well-known prefix. Addresses with this prefix are used for automatic IPv4/IPv6 translation.[30]
64:ff9b:1::/48 — A prefix for locally translated IPv4/IPv6 addresses. Addresses with this prefix can be used for multiple IPv4/IPv6 translation mechanisms like NAT64 and SIIT.[31] Compared to 64:ff9b::/96, these addresses contain their translated IPv4 address in positions 48-63 and 72-87.[30] This means that for every IPv4 address a /88 IPv6 prefix is assigned to the device. This enables similar use cases as 6to4, where a single public IPv4 address gets translated into a prefix. This way, only one level of NAT is required and the devices do not need to do NAT66 internally if they need additional addresses, e.g. for P2P interfaces or docker containers.
2002::/16 — This prefix was used for 6to4 addressing (prefix from the IPv4 network, 192.88.99.0/24, was also used). The 6to4 addressing scheme is deprecated.[36]
Special-purpose addresses
IANA has reserved a so-called Sub-TLA ID address block for special assignments[28][41] of 2001::/23 (split into the range of 64 network prefixes 2001:0000::/29 through 2001:01f8::/29). Three assignments from this block are currently allocated:
2001:2::/48 — Used for benchmarking IPv6. Corresponds with 198.18.0.0/15 used for benchmarking IPv4. Assigned to the Benchmarking Methodology Working Group (BMWG).[42]
2001:20::/28 — Overlay Routable Cryptographic Hash Identifiers (ORCHIDv2).[34] These are non-routed IPv6 addresses used for Cryptographic Hash Identifiers.
Documentation
2001:db8::/32 — This prefix is used in documentation[35][e] The addresses should be used anywhere an example IPv6 address is given or model networking scenarios are described.
3fff::/20 — This new prefix was allocated to account for modern-day large-scale network modelling, that cannot be covered by a single /32 prefix.[37]
Discard
100::/64 — This prefix is used for discarding traffic.[32]
The least significant 24 bits of the solicited-node multicast address group ID are filled with the least significant 24 bits of the interface's unicast or anycast address. These addresses allow link-layer address resolution via Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP) on the link without disturbing all nodes on the local network. A host is required to join a solicited-node multicast group for each of its configured unicast or anycast addresses.
On system startup, a node automatically creates a link-local address on each IPv6-enabled interface, even if globally routable addresses are manually configured or obtained through configuration protocols (see below). It does so independently and without any prior configuration by stateless address autoconfiguration (SLAAC),[46] using a component of the Neighbor Discovery Protocol. This address is selected with the prefix fe80::/64.
In IPv4, typical configuration protocols include DHCP or PPP. Although DHCPv6 exists, IPv6 hosts normally use the Neighbor Discovery Protocol to create a globally routable unicast address: the host sends router solicitation requests and an IPv6 router responds with a prefix assignment.[47]
Interface identifier
The lower 64 bits of these addresses are populated with a 64-bit interface identifier. This should be a pseudo-random number for privacy reasons. Also for privacy reasons, the interface identifier is different for each automatically configured address of that interface. This has the disadvantage that multiple multicast groups need to be joined for neighbor discovery. For this, the solicited-node multicast address is used, formed from the network prefix ff02::1:ff00:0/104 and the 24 least significant bits of the address.
A 64-bit interface identifier can be derived from the interface's 48-bit MAC address, although stable privacy addresses are now recommended as a default instead.[2] A MAC address 00-0C-29-0C-47-D5 is turned into a 64-bit EUI-64 by inserting FF-FE in the middle: 00-0C-29-FF-FE-0C-47-D5.[f]
Duplicate address detection
The assignment of a unicast IPv6 address to an interface involves an internal test for the uniqueness of that address using Neighbor Solicitation and Neighbor Advertisement (ICMPv6 type 135 and 136) messages. While in the process of establishing uniqueness an address has a tentative state.
The node joins the solicited-node multicast address for the tentative address and sends neighbor solicitations, with the tentative address as the target address and the unspecified address (::/128) as its source address. The node also joins the all-hosts multicast address ff02::1, so it can receive Neighbor Advertisements.
If a node receives a neighbor solicitation with its own tentative address as the target address, then it knows its address is not unique. The same is true if the node receives a neighbor advertisement with the tentative address as the source of the advertisement. Only after having successfully established that an address is unique may it be assigned and used by an interface.
When an anycast address is assigned to an interface (e.g. a subnet-router anycast address), due to the inherent non-uniqueness of this type of address, duplicate address detection is not performed.
Address lifetime
Each IPv6 address that is bound to an interface has a defined lifetime. Lifetimes are infinite, unless configured to a shorter period. There are two lifetimes that govern the state of an address: the preferred lifetime and the valid lifetime.[48] Lifetimes can be configured in routers that provide the values used for autoconfiguration, or specified when manually configuring addresses on interfaces.
When an address is assigned to an interface it gets the status preferred, which it holds during its preferred-lifetime. After that lifetime expires the status becomes deprecated and no new connections should be made using this address.[g] The address becomes invalid after its valid-lifetime also expires; the address is removed from the interface and may be assigned somewhere else on the Internet.
Temporary addresses
The globally unique and static MAC addresses used by stateless address autoconfiguration to create interface identifiers offer an opportunity to track user equipment across time and IPv6 network prefix changes.[49] To reduce the prospect of a user identity being permanently tied to an IPv6 address portion, a node may create temporary addresses with interface identifiers based on time-varying random bit strings[50] and relatively short lifetimes (hours to days), after which they are replaced with new addresses.
Temporary addresses may be used as source addresses for originating connections, while external hosts use a public address by querying the Domain Name System (DNS).
Such an address is generated using two hash functions that take several inputs. The first uses a public key and a random modifier; the latter being incremented repeatedly until a specific amount of zero bits of the resulting hash is acquired.[h] The second hash function takes the network prefix and the previous hash value. The least significant 64 bits of the second hash result is appended to the 64-bit network prefix to form a 128-bit address.
The hash functions can also be used to verify if a specific IPv6 address satisfies the requirement of being a valid CGA. This way, communication can be set up between trusted addresses exclusively.
Stable privacy addresses
The use of the modified EUI-64 format has serious implications for security and privacy concerns,[53] because the underlying hardware address (most typically the MAC address) is exposed beyond the local network, permitting the tracking of user activities and correlation of user accounts to other information. It also permits vendor-specific attack strategies and reduces the size of the address space for searching for attack targets.
Stable privacy addresses were introduced to remedy these shortcomings. They are stable within a specific network but change when moving to another, to improve privacy. They are chosen deterministically, but randomly, in the entire address space of the network.
Generation of a stable privacy address is based on a hash function that uses several stable parameters. It is implementation specific, but it is recommended to include at least the network prefix, the name of the network interface, a duplicate address counter, and a secret key. The resulting hash value is used to construct the final address: Typically the 64 least significant bits are concatenated to the 64-bit network prefix, to yield a 128-bit address. If the network prefix is smaller than 64 bits, more bits of the hash are used. If the resulting address does not conflict with existing or reserved addresses, it is assigned to the interface. Conflicts are resolved by adjusting the duplicate address counter.[53]
Default address selection
IPv6-enabled network interfaces usually have more than one IPv6 address, for example, a link-local and a global address. They may also have temporary addresses that change after a certain lifetime has expired. IPv6 introduces the concepts of address scope and selection preference, yielding multiple choices for source and destination addresses in communication with another host.
The preference selection algorithm selects the most appropriate address to use in communications with a particular destination, including the use of IPv4-mapped addresses in dual-stack implementations.[54] It uses a configurable preference table that associates each routing prefix with a precedence level. The default table has the following content:
Prefix
Precedence
Label
Usage
::1/128
50
0
Localhost
::/0
40
1
Default unicast
::ffff:0:0/96
35
4
IPv4-mapped IPv6 address
2002::/16
30
2
6to4
2001::/32
5
5
Teredo tunneling
fc00::/7
3
13
Unique local address
::/96
1
3
IPv4-compatible addresses (deprecated)
fec0::/10
1
11
Site-local address (deprecated)
3ffe::/16
1
12
6bone (returned)
The default configuration places preference on IPv6 usage, and selects destination addresses within the smallest possible scope, so that link-local communication is preferred over globally routed paths when otherwise equally suitable. The prefix policy table is similar to a routing table, with the precedence value serving as the role of a link cost, where higher preference is expressed as a larger value. Source addresses are preferred to have the same label value as the destination address. Addresses are matched to prefixes based on the longest-matching most-significant bit sequence. Candidate source addresses are obtained from the operating system and candidate destination addresses may be queried via DNS.
To minimize the time to establish a connection when multiple addresses are available for communication, the Happy Eyeballs algorithm was devised. It queries DNS for IPv6 and IPv4 addresses of the target host, sorts candidate addresses using the default address selection table, and tries to establish connections in parallel. The first established connection aborts current and future attempts to connect to other addresses.
Domain Name System
In the Domain Name System, hostnames are mapped to IPv6 addresses by AAAA resource records, so-called quad-A records.[55] For reverse lookup the IETF reserved the domain ip6.arpa, where the name space is hierarchically divided by the 1-digit hexadecimal representation of nibble units (4 bits) of the IPv6 address.
As in IPv4, each host is represented in the DNS by two DNS records: an address record and a reverse mapping pointer record. For example, a host computer named derrick in zone example.com has the unique local addressfdda:5cc1:23:4::1f. Its quad-A address record is
derrick.example.com. IN AAAA fdda:5cc1:23:4::1f
and its IPv6 pointer record is
f.1.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.4.0.0.0.3.2.0.0.1.c.c.5.a.d.d.f.ip6.arpa. IN PTR derrick.example.com.
This pointer record may be defined in a number of zones, depending on the chain of delegation of authority in the zone d.f.ip6.arpa.
The DNS protocol is independent of its transport layer protocol. Queries and replies may be transmitted over IPv6 or IPv4 transports regardless of the address family of the data requested.
The site-local prefix fec0::/10 specifies that the address is valid only within the site network of an organization. It was part of the original addressing architecture in December 1995,[56] but its use was deprecated in September 2004 because the definition of the term site was ambiguous, which led to confusing routing rules. New networks must not support this special type of address.[57] In October 2005, a new specification replaced this address type with unique local addresses.[39]
The address block 200::/7 was defined as an OSI NSAP-mapped prefix set in August 1996,[58][59] but was deprecated in December 2004.[60]
The 96-bit zero-value prefix ::/96, originally known as IPv4-compatible addresses, was mentioned in 1995[56] but never fully described. This range of addresses was used to represent IPv4 addresses within an IPv6 transition technology. Such an IPv6 address has its first (most significant) 96 bits set to zero, while its last 32 bits are the represented IPv4 address. In February 2006, the IETF deprecated the use of IPv4-compatible addresses.[1] The only remaining use of this address format is to represent an IPv4 address in a table or database with fixed size members that must also be able to store an IPv6 address.
Address block 3ffe::/16 was allocated for test purposes for the 6bone network in December 1998.[61] Prior to that, the address block 5f00::/8 was used for this purpose. Both address blocks were returned to the address pool in June 2006.[62]
Due to operational problems with 6to4 the use of address block 2002::/16 is diminishing, since the 6to4 mechanism is deprecated since May 2015.[36] Although IPv4 address block 192.88.99.0/24 is deprecated, 2002::/16 is not.
In April 2007 the address block 2001:10::/28 was assigned for Overlay Routable Cryptographic Hash Identifiers (ORCHID).[63] It was intended for experimental use. In September 2014 a second version of ORCHID was specified,[34] and with the introduction of block 2001:20::/28 the original block was returned to IANA.
Miscellaneous
For reverse DNS lookup, IPv6 addresses were originally registered in the DNS zone ip6.int, because it was expected that the top-level domain arpa would be retired. In 2000, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) reverted this intention, and decided in 2001 that arpa should retain its original function. Domains in ip6.int were moved to ip6.arpa[64] and zone ip6.int was officially removed on 6 June 2006.
In March 2011, the IETF refined the recommendations for allocation of address blocks to end sites.[23] Instead of assigning either a /48, /64, or /128 (according to IAB's and IESG's views of 2001),[65] Internet service providers should consider assigning smaller blocks (for example a /56) to end users. The ARIN, RIPE & APNIC regional registries' policies encourage /56 assignments where appropriate.[23]
Originally, two proposals existed for translating domain names to IPv6 addresses: one using AAAA records,[66] the other using A6 records.[67] AAAA records, the method that prevailed, are comparable to A records for IPv4, providing a simple mapping from hostname to IPv6 address. The method using A6 records used a hierarchical scheme, in which the mapping of subsequent groups of address bits was specified by additional A6 records, providing the possibility to renumber all hosts in a network by changing a single A6 record. As the perceived benefits of the A6 format were not deemed to outweigh the perceived costs,[68][69][70][71] the method was moved to experimental status in 2002,[69] and finally to historic status in 2012.[71]
In 2009, many DNS resolvers in home-networking NAT devices and routers were found to handle AAAA records improperly.[72] Some of these simply dropped DNS requests for such records, instead of properly returning the appropriate negative DNS response. Because the request is dropped, the host sending the request has to wait for a timeout to trigger. This often causes increased latency when connecting to dual-stack IPv6/IPv4 hosts, as the client software waits for the IPv6 connection to fail before trying IPv4.
↑ Assuming that eth2 is equivalent to zone number 3. This is usually the case, as real zone numbers start at 1 (0 being the 'default zone')
↑ Although Windows supports the RFC 3493 if_nametoindex() API for converting a name to an interface number, it does not support the customary "name after%" extension.
↑ 192.0.2.0/24, 198.51.100.0/24, and 203.0.113.0/24 are used for documentation in IPv4.[43]
↑ When this EUI-64 is used to form an IPv6 address, it is modified:[1] the meaning of the Universal/Local bit (the 7th most significant bit of the EUI-64, starting from 1) is inverted, so that a 1 now means Universal. To create an IPv6 address with the network prefix 2001:db8:1:2::/64 it yields the address 2001:db8:1:2:020c:29ff:fe0c:47d5 (with the Universal/Local bit, the second-least-significant bit of the underlined quartet, inverted to 1 in this case because the MAC address is universally unique).
↑ In most cases, the lifetime does not expire because new Router Advertisements (RAs) refresh the timers. But if there are no more RAs, eventually the preferred lifetime elapses and the address becomes deprecated.
↑ Comparable with the 'proof of work' field in Bitcoin mining.
Related Research Articles
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label such as 192.0.2.1 that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. IP addresses serve two main functions: network interface identification, and location addressing.
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the first version of the Internet Protocol (IP) as a standalone specification. It is one of the core protocols of standards-based internetworking methods in the Internet and other packet-switched networks. IPv4 was the first version deployed for production on SATNET in 1982 and on the ARPANET in January 1983. It is still used to route most Internet traffic today, even with the ongoing deployment of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), its successor.
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the long-anticipated problem of IPv4 address exhaustion, and was intended to replace IPv4. In December 1998, IPv6 became a Draft Standard for the IETF, which subsequently ratified it as an Internet Standard on 14 July 2017.
The Internet Protocol (IP) is the network layer communications protocol in the Internet protocol suite for relaying datagrams across network boundaries. Its routing function enables internetworking, and essentially establishes the Internet.
Classless Inter-Domain Routing is a method for allocating IP addresses for IP routing. The Internet Engineering Task Force introduced CIDR in 1993 to replace the previous classful network addressing architecture on the Internet. Its goal was to slow the growth of routing tables on routers across the Internet, and to help slow the rapid exhaustion of IPv4 addresses.
A multicast address is a logical identifier for a group of hosts in a computer network that are available to process datagrams or frames intended to be multicast for a designated network service. Multicast addressing can be used in the link layer, such as Ethernet multicast, and at the internet layer for Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) or Version 6 (IPv6) multicast.
A subnetwork, or subnet, is a logical subdivision of an IP network. The practice of dividing a network into two or more networks is called subnetting.
A classful network is an obsolete network addressing architecture used in the Internet from 1981 until the introduction of Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) in 1993. The method divides the IP address space for Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) into five address classes based on the leading four address bits. Classes A, B, and C provide unicast addresses for networks of three different network sizes. Class D is for multicast networking and the class E address range is reserved for future or experimental purposes.
Zero-configuration networking (zeroconf) is a set of technologies that automatically creates a usable computer network based on the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) when computers or network peripherals are interconnected. It does not require manual operator intervention or special configuration servers. Without zeroconf, a network administrator must set up network services, such as Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) and Domain Name System (DNS), or configure each computer's network settings manually.
Anycast is a network addressing and routing methodology in which a single IP address is shared by devices in multiple locations. Routers direct packets addressed to this destination to the location nearest the sender, using their normal decision-making algorithms, typically the lowest number of BGP network hops. Anycast routing is widely used by content delivery networks such as web and name servers, to bring their content closer to end users.
In Internet networking, a private network is a computer network that uses a private address space of IP addresses. These addresses are commonly used for local area networks (LANs) in residential, office, and enterprise environments. Both the IPv4 and the IPv6 specifications define private IP address ranges.
6to4 is an Internet transition mechanism for migrating from Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) to version 6 (IPv6) and a system that allows IPv6 packets to be transmitted over an IPv4 network without the need to configure explicit tunnels. Special relay servers are also in place that allow 6to4 networks to communicate with native IPv6 networks.
The Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP), or simply Neighbor Discovery (ND), is a protocol of the Internet protocol suite used with Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). It operates at the internet layer of the Internet model, and is responsible for gathering various information required for network communication, including the configuration of local connections and the domain name servers and gateways.
Multicast DNS (mDNS) is a computer networking protocol that resolves hostnames to IP addresses within small networks that do not include a local name server. It is a zero-configuration service, using essentially the same programming interfaces, packet formats and operating semantics as unicast Domain Name System (DNS). It was designed to work as either a stand-alone protocol or compatible with standard DNS servers. It uses IP multicast User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets and is implemented by the Apple Bonjour and open-source Avahi software packages, included in most Linux distributions. Although the Windows 10 implementation was limited to discovering networked printers, subsequent releases resolved hostnames as well. mDNS can work in conjunction with DNS Service Discovery (DNS-SD), a companion zero-configuration networking technique specified separately in RFC 6763.
The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol version 6 (DHCPv6) is a network protocol for configuring Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) hosts with IP addresses, IP prefixes, default route, local segment MTU, and other configuration data required to operate in an IPv6 network. It is not just the IPv6 equivalent of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv4.
In the Internet addressing architecture, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) and the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) have reserved various Internet Protocol (IP) addresses for special purposes.
In computer networking, a link-local address is a network address that is valid only for communications on a local link, i.e. within a subnetwork that a host is connected to. Link-local addresses are typically assigned automatically through a process known as link-local address autoconfiguration, also known as auto-IP, automatic private IP addressing, and stateless address autoconfiguration. While most link-local addresses are unicast, this is not necessarily the case; e.g. IPv6 addresses beginning with ff02:, and IPv4 addresses beginning with 224.0.0. are multicast addresses that are link-local.
An IPv6 transition mechanism is a technology that facilitates the transitioning of the Internet from the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) infrastructure in use since 1983 to the successor addressing and routing system of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). As IPv4 and IPv6 networks are not directly interoperable, transition technologies are designed to permit hosts on either network type to communicate with any other host.
A unique local address (ULA) is an Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) address in the address range fc00::/7. These addresses are non-globally reachable. For this reason, ULAs are somewhat analogous to IPv4 private network addressing, but with significant differences. Unique local addresses may be used freely, without centralized registration, inside a single site or organization or spanning a limited number of sites or organizations.
A solicited-node multicast address is an IPv6 multicast address used by the Neighbor Discovery Protocol to determine the link layer address associated with a given IPv6 address, which is also used to check if an address is already being used by the local-link or not, through a process called DAD. The solicited-node multicast addresses are generated from the host's IPv6 unicast or anycast address, and each interface must have a solicited-node multicast address associated with it.
↑ "IPv6 Addressing Plans". ARIN IPv6 Wiki. Retrieved 2018-07-15. All customers get one /48 unless they can show that they need more than 65k subnets. [...] If you have lots of consumer customers you may want to assign /56s to private residence sites.
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