IPv6 Address

Representation
and Types

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 IPv6 Address Representation
• IPv6 address is 128 bits

• Number of IPv6 addresses : 2^128 ~ 3.4 x 1038

• IPv6 address is represented in hexadecimal

– 4-bits (nibble) represent a hexadecimal digit
– 4 nibbles (16-bits) make a hextet
– represented as eight hextets (4 nibbles or 16 bits), each
separated by a colon (:)

2001:ABCD:1234::DC0:A910 nibble

1010 1001 0001 0000

Hextet

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IPv6 Address Representation (2)
2001:0DB8:0000:0000:0000:036E:1250:2B00

• Abbreviated form

2001:0DB8:0000:0000:0000:036E:1250:2B00 Leading 0s

– Leading zeroes (0) in any hextet can be omitted

2001:DB8:0:0:0:36E:1250:2B00 Sequence of 0s

– A double colon (::) can replace contiguous hextet

segments of zeroes
2001:DB8::36E:1250:2B00 Double colons

– (::) can only be used once!

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IPv6 Address Representation (3)
• Double colons (::) representation
– RFC5952 recommends that the largest set of :0: be replaced
with :: for consistency
2001:0:0:0:2F:0:0:5
2001::2F:0:0:5 instead of 2001:0:0:0:2F::5

– Where there is same number of :0:, the first set be replaced

with ::
2001:DB8:0:0:2F:0:0:5
2001:DB8::2F:0:0:5 instead of 2001:DB8:0:0:2F::5
• Prefix Representation
– Representation of prefix is similar to IPv4 CIDR

→ prefix/prefix-length
2001:DB8::/40

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 Quiz
Please write the compressed format of these
addresses:
1. 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000
2. 2001:0db8:0000:0000:d170:0000:0100:0ba8
3. 2001:0db8:0000:0000:00a0:0000:0000:10bc
4. 2001:0db8:0fc5:007b:ab70:0210:0000:00bb
 IPv6 Addressing Model RFC
4291

• Unicast Address
– Assigned to a single interface
B
– Packet sent only to the interface with that address
A
B
• Anycast Address
– Same address assigned to more than one interface B
(on different nodes)
– Packet for an anycast address routed to the nearest A
interface (routing distance) B

• Multicast Address
– group of interfaces (on different nodes) join a
multicast group B
– A multicast address identifies the interface group
– Packet sent to the multicast address is replicated to A
all interfaces in the group

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Overview of IPv6 Address Types

IPv6 Addressing

Unicast Anycast Multicast

Assigned Solicited Node

ff00::/8 ff02::1:ff00:0000/104

Unspecified Embedded Unique Local

Loopback Global Unicast Link-Local
Address IPv4
::/128 ::1/128 ::/80 2000::/3 fe80::/10 fc00::/7

Figure 1: IPv6 Address Types

Figure 1: Adapted from Graziani, R. (2013). IPv6 Fundamentals: A Straightforward Approach to Understanding IPv6. USA: Cisco Press, Figure 4-1.
IPv6 Address Types.
 Special Unicast Addresses

• Unspecified Address (absence of a address)

::/128

• Loopback (test OSI/TCP-IP stack implementation)

::1/128

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 Global Unicast Addresses
• Globally unique and routable IPv6 address

• The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority

(IANA) currently assigns IPv6 addresses only out
of the binary range starting with 001, that means
2000::/3.

• IANA has allocated Global Unicast Addresses to

RIRs (Regional Internet Registry). There are five
RIRs. For example, APNIC has been allocated
2400::/12.

More details of allocation is on this link:

https://www.iana.org/assignments/ipv6-unicast-address-assignments/ipv6-unicast-address-assignments.xhtml

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 Global Unicast Addresses

• RIRs assign /32 to ISPs

3 bits

001 RIR ISP Global Unicast Address

9 bits
20 bits
/3 /12 /32

128 bits

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 IPv6 Addressing Structure
RFC
Network Prefix 6177

Customer(Site) Prefix Subnet ID Interface ID

48 bits 16 bits 64 bits

• Customer (Site) Prefix: assigned to a customer site

– Group of subnets
– ISPs/RIRs ‘would’ assign /48 (/56 to customers)

• Subnet ID: identifies the subnets (links) within a site

• Interface ID: host portion of the IPv6 address

– how many hosts within a subnet

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IPv6 Addressing Structure
0 63 64 127
Network Prefix Interface ID

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16

16
ISP /32
64
Customer Site /48
End Site Subnet /64 Device 128 Bit Address
 Link-local Unicast Addresses
• Auto configured address (similar to APIPA)
– Every IPv6 enabled device must have a link-local address
– To communicate with other IPv6 devices on the same link
– FE80::/10

• The link-local address is used by routers as the

next-hop address when forwarding IPv6 packets

• All IPv6 hosts on a subnet/link, uses the router’s

link-local as the default gateway
– Routers use the link-local as the source in ND-RA
messages

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 Zone IDs for Link-locals

Example 1 - fe80::4e0:37e4:c5d1:c845%en0
Example 2 - fe80::aede:48ff:fe00:12%15

• Zone IDs help uniquely distinguish which

link/subnet an interface is connected to

• To ping a remote IPv6 node, use your interface zone

ID (so that the response packet has a path)

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 Quiz - Zone ID
fe80::b1%12 PC-B
fe80::a1%20

PC-A

fe80::a2%18 fe80::c1%en0
PC-C

• Please write down the commands:

– PC-A ping PC-B
– PC-A telnet PC-C

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Unique Local Unicast Addresses
• Similar to RFC1918 addresses (but within a “site”)
– Unique within a site
– Routable within site(s)
– Not ‘expected’ to be routed on the internet

FC00::/7

| 7 bits | 1 | 40 bits | 16 bits. | 64 bits |

+--------+--+--------------+------------+---------------------------+
| Prefix | L | Global ID | Subnet ID | Interface ID. |
+--------+--+--------------+------------+---------------------------+

L: 1 for local significance

Global ID: 40-bit pseudo-random

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 Modified EUI-64 format
• Allows IPv6 device to compute a
unique 64 bit Interface ID using
the interface MAC address (48 bit)
OUI NIC

– MAC address is split into two 24 bit

halves 00 21 2F 10 A2 48

• OUI and NIC

– Then 0xFFFE is inserted between the

two halves 00 21 2F FF FE 10 A2 48
• 0xFFFE is reserved value, not assigned to any
OEM
0000 0000
– Invert 7th
bit (U/L) of the OUI to get 0000 0010
the EUI-64 address
• addresses assigned to OEMs have this bit set
to 0 to indicate global uniqueness 02 21 2F FF FE 10 A2 48
• Set to 1 (invert 0) to indicate IEEE identifier
(MAC( is used, or 0 if otherwise
(serials/tunnels).

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 IPv6 Addressing EUI-64
LAN: 2001:db8:213:1::/64

Eth0

interface Ethernet0
ipv6 address 2001:db8:213:1::/64 eui-64 MAC address: 0060.3e47.1530

router# show ipv6 interface Ethernet0

Ethernet0 is up, line protocol is up
IPv6 is enabled, link-local address is FE80::260:3EFF:FE47:1530
Global unicast address(es):
2001:db8:213:1:260:3EFF:FE47:1530, subnet is 2001:db8:213:1::/64
Joined group address(es):
FF02::1:FF47:1530
FF02::1
FF02::2
MTU is 1500 bytes
 IPv6 Interface ID – Privacy
• Overcome the ability to track (interface ID based on
MAC address):
– Temporary address (changes): outgoing connections RFC
– Secured address: incoming connection 4941
Temp > 2001:db8:a000:4:84a3:49b6:1919:26fb
Secured> 2001:db8:a000:4:aede:48ff:fe08:112
Temp > 2001:db8:a000:4:14e6:d4a3:815d:91dd

• Ease network management yet improve privacy:

– Stable interface identifiers for each subnet
Temp > 2001:db8:a000:4:84a3:49b6:1919:26fb RFC
7217
Secured> 2001:db8:a000:4:cbb:347c:6215:1083

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Well-known Multicast Addresses
• Multicast addresses can only be destinations and never a
source
FF00::/8
• Pre-defined multicast addresses:
– FF02::1 All nodes multicast
• All IPv6 enabled devices join this multicast group
• Packets sent to this address is received by all nodes

– FF02::2 All routers multicast

• The moment IPv6 is enabled on a router (#ipv6 unicast-routing), the
router becomes a member of this group

– FF02::1:FFXX:XXXX/104 Solicited Node multicast

• NS messages (~ARP request) are sent to this address
• Uses the least significant 24-bits of its unicast/anycast address
• Must compute and join for every unicast (link-local & global) on a interface

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Well-known Multicast Addresses
• Pre-defined multicast addresses:

– FF02::1:2 All DHCP Servers/Relay Agents

• Clients use this multicast address to discover any DHCPv6 servers/relays
on the local link (link-scoped)

– FF05::1:3 All DHCP servers

• Generally used by Relays to talk to servers
• Site-scoped

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 ICMPv6 Neighbor Discovery
• Router Solicitation (RS):
RFC
– sent by IPv6 host to "all routers" multicast to request RA 4861

• Router Advertisement (RA):

– sent by a IPv6 router to the "all nodes" multicast (200 secs)
– IPv6 prefix/prefix length, and default gateway

• Neighbor Solicitation (NS):

– sent by IPv6 host to the "solicited node" multicast to find the MAC
address of a given IPv6 address (~ARP request).

• Neighbor Advertisement (NA):

– sent in response to a NS and informs of its MAC address.

• ICMPv6 Redirect:
– informs the source of a better next-hop

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 IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ND)
• Host A would like to communicate with Host B
– Global address 2406:6400::10
– Link-local fe80::226:bbff:fe06:ff81
– MAC address 00:26:bb:06:ff:81

• Host B IPv6 global address 2406:6400::20

– Link-local UNKNOWN (if GW outside the link)
– MAC address UNKNOWN

• How will Host A create L2 frame and send to Host

B?
IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ND)

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 IPv6 Address Resolution

1 Multicast
ICMPv6 NS Type135

SMAC: 00:26:BB:06:FF:81 DMAC: 33:33:FF:00:00:20 RFC2464 – 33:33:xx:xx:xx:xx

Source IPv6: Destination IPv6:
2406:6400::0010 FF02:0:0:0:0:1:FF00:0020

Unicast 2
ICMPv6 NA Type136

SMAC: 00:26:BB:06:FF:82 DMAC: 00:26:BB:06:FF:81

Source IPv6: Destination IPv6:
2406:6400::0020 2406:6400::0010

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 IPv6 Address Resolution

3 Unicast
IPv6 Packet

SMAC: 00:26:BB:06:FF:81 DMAC: 00:26:BB:06:FF:82

Source IPv6: Dest IPv6:
2406:6400::0010 2406:6400::0020
Payload

Unicast 4
IPv6 Packet

SMAC: 00:26:BB:06:FF:82 DMAC: 00:26:BB:06:FF:81

Source IPv6: Dest IPv6:
2406:6400::0020 2406:6400::0010
Payload

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 Address Resolution Packets
• Click this link to check the address resolution packets
• https://www.cloudshark.org/captures/eb1b377ffcad

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IPv6 Address Auto-configuration
• Stateless address auto-configuration (SLAAC)
– No manual configuration required
– Gets the IPv6 prefix and prefix length through RA (local
router)
– EUI-64 for interface ID (pseudo random)

• Stateful - DHCPv6
– To track address assignments

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Stateless Address Autoconfig (1)
RFC
When a host joins a link/subnet: 2462

• It auto-generates a link-local using

the FE80::/10 prefix and EUI-64: FE80::346A:3BFF:FE76:CAF9

– Ex: FE80::346A:3BFF:FE76:CAF9

NS
• DAD is performed on the link-local:
– NS message is sent to the “solicited-
node” multicast (FF02::1:FF76:CAF9),
with ::/128 as the source

– If no NA message is received back, the

generated address is unique and can
be used

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Stateless Address Autoconfig (2)

Once the node has a link-local address:

FE80::346A:3BFF:FE76:CAF9
• sends a RS message to the ”all-routers” 2001:DB8::346A:3BFF:FE76:CAF9
multicast (FF02::2)
– link-local as the source address

RS
• The router responds with a RA message 2001:DB8::/64
– IPv6 prefix and prefix length
– link-local as the source
– Auto flag by default (Managed and Other flags RA
are not set!)

• The node generates the IPv6 address

– uses the received prefix (2001:DB8::/64)
– Interface ID (EUI-64)
– 2001:DB8::346A:3BFF:FE76:CAF9
– DAD not necessary (link-local validated for the
same interface!)

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 DHCPv6 (1)
RFC
DHCPv6 is used: 3315

– If there are no router(s) on the subnet/link, OR

– If the RA message specifies to get addressing
information via DHCPv6

If the router’s RA message has the:

– O (other) flag set: stateless DHCPv6

• auto-generate IPv6 address using IPv6 prefix & prefix length in
the RA
• obtain other information (DNS server, domain) via DHCPv6

– M (managed) flag set:

• obtain all addressing information via DHCPv6
• ‘O’ flag is redundant

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Stateful Autoconfig – DHCPv6 (2)
1. Client sends Solicit message to FF02::1:2 DHCPv6
to find any available DHCPv6 servers IPv6 Client Server

2. Server responds with an Advertise message Solicit

• the tentative IPv6 address/prefix
• Other parameters (DNS, domain, default
gateway, lease time) Advertise
• could receive multiple Advertise messages
Request
3. Client selects the server, and sends a
Request asking to formally request the Reply
indicated IPv6 address

4. Server responds with a Reply to confirm the

assignment

5. Performs DAD before using!

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