IPV6

Background
That short-term solution was Network Address Translation (NAT). Behind the NAT device, private IP addresses as specified in RFC 1918. NAT has been so successful in slowing IPv4 address depletion, and has become such a standard part of most networks, that to this day many still question the need for a new version of IP. There are two fundamental drivers behind the growing recognition of the need for IPv6. The first is widespread vision of new applications using core concepts such as mobile IP, service quality guarantees, end-to-end security, grid computing, and peer-to-peer networking. NAT stifles innovation in these areas, and the only way to get NAT out of the way is to make public IP addresses abundant and readily available.

Background

The second fundamental driver for IPv6 is the rapid modernization of heavily populated countries such as India and China. A compelling statistic is that the number of remaining unallocated IPv4 addresses is almost the same as the population of China: about 1.3 billion. IPv6 replaces the 32-bit IPv4 address with a 128-bit address, making 340 trillion trillion trillion IP addresses available.
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 128-bit IPv6 addresses are represented by breaking them up into eight 16-bit segments. Each segment is written in hexadecimal between 0x0000 and 0xFFFF, separated by colons. An example of a written IPv6 address is 3ffe:1944:0100:000a:0000:00bc:2500: 0d0b

Address Representation

 Two rules for reducing the size of written IPv6 addresses. The first rule is: The leading zeroes in any 16-bit segment do not have to be written; if any 16-bit segment has fewer than four hexadecimal digits, it is assumed that the missing digits are leading zeroes.

Rule 1: Leading 0s

Example
3ffe : 1944 : 0100 : 000a : 0000 : 00bc : 2500 : 0d0b 3ffe : 1944 : 100 : a : 0 : bc : 2500 : d0b
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Rule 1: Leading 0s
Practice
3ffe : 0404 : 0001 : 1000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0ef0 : bc00

3ffe : 0000 : 010d : 000a : 00dd : c000 : e000 : 0001

ff02 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0005

Rule 1: Leading 0s
Practice
3ffe : 0404 : 0001 : 1000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0ef0 : bc00 3ffe : 404 : 1 : 1000 : 0 : 0 : ef0 : bc00 3ffe : 0000 : 010d : 000a : 00dd : c000 : e000 : 0001 3ffe : 0 : 10d : a : dd : c000 : e000 : 1 ff02 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0005 ff02 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 5

Rule 1: Leading 0s
Notice that only leading zeroes can be omitted; trailing zeroes cannot, because doing so would make the segment ambiguous. You would not be able to tell whether the missing zeroes belonged before or after the written digits.
3ffe : 1944 : 100 : a : 0 : bc : 2500 : d0b

Correct Original Address 3ffe : 1944 : 0100 : 000a : 0000 : 00bc : 2500 : 0d0b OR Wrong, Ambiguous Original Address 3ffe : 1944 : 1000 : a000 : 0000 : bc00 : 2500 : d0b0 8

Rule 2: Double colon :: equals 00000000

The second rule can reduce this address even further: Any single, contiguous string of one or more 16-bit segments consisting of all zeroes can be represented with a double colon.
ff02 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0000 : 0005 ff02 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 0 : 5 ff02 : : 5

ff02::5
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Rule 2: Double colon :: equals 00000000

Only a single contiguous string of all-zero segments can be represented with a double colon. Example: Both of these are correct
2001 : 0d02 : 0000 : 0000 : 0014 : 0000 : 0000 : 0095 2001 : d02 :: 14 : 0 : 0 : 95 2001 : d02 : 0 : 0 : 14 :: 95 2001 : 0d02 : 0000 : 0000 : 0014 : 0000 : 0000 : 0095 2001 : d02 :: 14 : 0 : 0 : 95 OR 2001 : d02 : 0 : 0 : 14 :: 95

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Rule 2: Double colon :: equals 00000000

Using the double colon more than once in an IPv6 address can create ambiguity.

Example 2001:d02::14::95
Illegal because the length of the two all-zero strings is ambiguous; it could represent any of the following IPv6 addresses: 2001:0d02:0000:0000:0014:0000:0000:009 5 2001:0d02:0000:0000:0000:0014:0000:009 5 2001:0d02:0000:0014:0000:0000:0000:009 5

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 IPv4, the prefixthe network portion of the addresscan be identified by a dotted decimal or hexadecimal address mask or a bitcount. 255.255.255.0 or /24

Network Prefixes

IPv6 prefixes are always identified by bitcount. The address is followed by a forward slash and a decimal number indicating how many of the first bits of the address are the prefix bits. 3ffe:1944:100:a::/64
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All 0s IPv6 Address

1. An IPv6 address consisting of all zeroes can be written simply with a double colon. There are two cases where an all-zeroes address is used. Default address, discussed in Chapter 12, "Default Routes and On-Demand Routing," in which the address is all zeroes and the prefix length is zero: ::/0 Unspecified address, which is used in some Neighbor Discovery Protocol procedures (later). An unspecified address is a filler, indicating the absence of a real IPv6 address. When writing an unspecified address, it is differentiated from a default address by its prefix length: ::/128
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2.

IPv6 Global Unicast and Anycast Addresses

Global unicast and anycast addresses share the same format. The unicast address space allocates the anycast addresses. When a unicast address is assigned to more than one interface, thus turning it into an anycast address, the nodes to which the address is assigned must be explicitly configured to use and recognize the anycast address. A packet that is sent to an anycast address routes to the closest device or interface that shares the address.
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Three types of IPv6

The three types of IPv6 address follow: 1. Unicast 2. Anycast 3. Multicast Unlike IPv4, there is no IPv6 broadcast address. There is, however, an "all nodes" multicast address, which serves essentially the same purpose as a broadcast address.

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Global Unicast Addresses

A unicast address is an address that identifies a single device. A global unicast address is a unicast address that is globally unique. Global unicast addresses, we mean an address with global scope. That is, an address that is globally unique and can therefore be routed globally with no modification.

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Global Unicast Addresses

Replaced with

Note: This format, specified in RFC 3587, obsoletes and simplifies an earlier format that divided the IPv6 unicast address into Top Level Aggregator (TLA), Next-Level Aggregator (NLA), and other fields. However, you should be aware that this obsolescence is relatively recent and you are likely to encounter some books and documents that show the old IPv6 address format.
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Global Unicast Addresses

The host portion of the address is called the Interface ID. The reason for this name is that a host can have more than one IPv6 interface, and so the address more correctly identifies an interface on a host than a host itself. But that subtlety only goes so far: A single interface can have multiple IPv6 addresses, and can have an IPv4 address in addition.

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Global Unicast Addresses

Most striking difference between IPv4 addresses and IPv6 addresses, (aside from their lengths): location of the Subnet Identifier Subnet Identifier is part of the network portion of the address rather than the host portion.

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Global Unicast Addresses

A big benefit of making the IPv6 Subnet ID field a part of the network portion of the address is that the Interface ID can be a consistent size for all IPv6 addresses, simplifying the parsing of the address. And making the Subnet ID a part of the network portion creates a clear separation of functions: The network portion provides the location of a device down to the specific data link and the host portion provides the identity of the device on the data link.
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Global Unicast Addresses

With very few exceptions: Interface ID is 64 bits long Subnet ID field is 16 bits provides for 65,536 separate subnets The IANA and the Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) assign IPv6 prefixes normally /32 or /35 in lengthto the Local Internet Registries (LIRs). The LIRs, which are usually large Internet Service Providers, then allocate longer prefixes to their customers. In the majority of cases, the prefixes assigned by the LIRs are /48.
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Global Unicast Addresses

Exceptions If the customer is very large, a prefix shorter than /48 might be assigned. If one and only one subnet is to be addressed, a /64 might be assigned. If one and only one device is to be addressed, a /128 might be assigned.

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 An anycast address represents a service rather than a device The same address can reside on one or more devices providing the same service.

Anycast Addresses

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 A service is offered by three servers, all advertising the service at the IPv6 address 3ffe:205:1100::15. The router, receiving advertisements for the address, does not know that it is being advertised by three different devices; instead, the router assumes that it has three routes to the same destination and chooses the lowest-cost route. In this is the route to server C with a cost of 20.

Anycast Addresses

Preferred route
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 The advantage of anycast addresses is that a router always routes to the "closest" or "lowest-cost" server. So servers providing some commonly used service can be spread across a large network and traffic can be localized or scoped to the nearest server, making traffic patterns in the network more efficient. And if one server becomes unavailable, the router routes to the next nearest server.

Anycast Addresses

Preferred route
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Multicast Addresses

FE80::/10 FEC0::/10

A multicast address identifies not one device but a set of devicesa multicast group. A packet being sent to a multicast group is originated by a single device; therefore a multicast packet normally has a unicast address as its source address and a multicast address as its destination address. A multicast address never appears in a packet as a source address. IPv6 does not have a reserved broadcast address like IPv4, but it does have a reserved all-nodes multicast group. (FF02::1)
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Multicast Addresses

Multicasting is essential to the basic operation of IPv6, particularly some of its plug-and-play features such as router discovery and address autoconfiguration. These functions are a part of the Neighbor Discovery Protocol, discussed later.

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Multicast Addresses

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Embedded IPv4 Addresses

There are several transition technologies means of helping to transition a network from IPv4 to IPv6 or otherwise help IPv4 and IPv6 to coexistthat require an IPv4 address to be communicated within an IPv6 address. The individual technology specifies how the IPv4 address is to be embedded in the IPv6 address, and the implementation of the technology knows where among the 128 bits of the IPv6 address to find the 32 bits of the IPv4 address.
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