IPv6 Tutorial

Internet has been growing extremely Iast so the IPv4 addresses are quickly approaching
complete depletion. Although many organizations already use Network Address Translators
(NATs) to map multiple private address spaces to a single public IP address but they have to
Iace with other problems Irom NAT (the use oI the same private address, security.).
Moreover, many other devices than PC & laptop are requiring an IP address to go to the
Internet. To solve these problems in long-term, a new version oI the IP protocol version 6
(IPv6) was created and developed.
IPv6 was created by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), a standards body, as a
replacement to IPv4 in 1998. So what happened with IPv5? IP Version 5 was deIined Ior
experimental reasons and never was deployed.
While IPv4 uses 32 bits to address the IP (provides approximately 2
32
4,294,967,296
unique addresses but in Iact about 3.7 billion addresses are assignable because the IPv4
addressing system separates the addresses into classes and reserves addresses Ior
multicasting, testing, and other speciIic uses), IPv6 uses up to 128 bits which provides 2
128

addresses or approximately 3.4 * 10
38
addresses. Well, maybe we should say it is extremely
extremely extremely huge.
IPv6 Address Types
Address Type Description
Unicast
One to One (Global, Link local, Site local)
An address destined Ior a single interIace.
Multicast
One to Many
An address Ior a set oI interIaces
Delivered to a group oI interIaces identiIied by that address.
Replaces IPv4 'broadcast
Anycast
One to Nearest (Allocated Irom Unicast)
Delivered to the closest interIace as determined by the IGP
A single interIace may be assigned multiple IPv6 addresses oI any type (unicast, anycast,
multicast)
IPv6 address format
Format:
x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x where x is a 16 bits hexadecimal Iield and x represents Iour hexadecimal
digits.
An example oI IPv6:
2001:0000:5723:0000:0000:D14E:DBCA:0764
There are:
8 groups oI 4 hexadecimal digits.
Each group represents 16 bits (4 hexa digits * 4 bit)
Separator is ':
Hex digits are not case sensitive, so 'DBCA is same as 'dbca or 'DBca.
IPv6 (128-bit) address contains two parts:
The Iirst 64-bits is known as the preIix. The preIix includes the network and subnet
address. Because addresses are allocated based on physical location, the preIix also includes
global routing inIormation. The 64-bit preIix is oIten reIerred to as the global routing preIix.
The last 64-bits is the interIace ID. This is the unique address assigned to an interIace.
Note: Addresses are assigned to interIaces (network connections), not to the host. Each
interIace can have more than one IPv6 address.
Rules for abbreviating IPv6 Addresses:
Leading zeros in a Iield are optional
2001:0DA8:E800:0000:0260:3EFF:FE47:0001 can be written as
2001:DA8:E800:0:260:3EFF:FE47:1
Successive Iields oI 0 are represented as ::, but only once in an address:
2001:0DA8:E800:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001 -~ 2001:DA8:E800::1
Other examples:
FF02:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 ~ FF02::1
3FFE:0501:0008:0000:0260:97FF:FE40:EFAB 3FFE:501:8:0:260:97FF:FE40:EFAB
3FFE:501:8::260:97FF:FE40:EFAB
0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 ~ ::1
0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0 ~ ::
IPv6 Addressing In Use
IPv6 uses the '/ notation to denote how many bits in the IPv6 address represent the subnet.
The Iull syntax oI IPv6 is
ipv6-address/prefix-length
where
ipv6-address is the 128-bit IPv6 address
/prefix-length is a decimal value representing how many oI the leIt most contiguous bits oI
the address comprise the preIix.
Let`s analyze an example:
2001:C:7:ABCD::1/64 is really
2001:000C:0007:ABCD:0000:0000:0000:0001/64
The Iirst 64-bits 2001:000C:0007:ABCD is the address preIix
The last 64-bits 0000:0000:0000:0001 is the interIace ID
/64 is the preIix length (/64 is well-known and also the preIix length in most cases)
1he lnLerneL CorporaLlon for Asslgned names and numbers (lCAnn) ls responslble for Lhe
asslgnmenL of lv6 addresses lCAnn asslgns a range of l addresses Lo 8eglonal lnLerneL 8eglsLry
(8l8) organlzaLlons 1he slze of address range asslgned Lo Lhe 8l8 may vary buL wlLh a mlnlmum
preflx of /12 and belong Lo Lhe followlng range 2000/12 Lo 200lllllllllllll/64


Each ISP receives a /32 and provides a /48 Ior each site-~ every ISP can provide 2
(48-32)

65,536 site addresses (note: each network organized by a single entity is oIten called a site).
Each site provides /64 Ior each LAN -~ each site can provide 2
(64-48)
65,536 LAN addresses
Ior use in their private networks.
So each LAN can provide 2
64
interIace addresses Ior hosts.
-~ Global routing inIormation is identiIied within the Iirst 64-bit preIix.
Note: The number that represents the range oI addresses is called a preIix


Now let`s see an example oI IPv6 preIix: 2001:0A3C:5437:ABCD::/64:

In this example, the RIR has been assigned a 12-bit preIix. The ISP has been assigned a 32-
bit preIix and the site is assigned a 48-bit site ID. The next 16-bit is the subnet Iield and it can
allow 2
16
, or 65536 subnets. This number is redundant Ior largest corporations on the world!
The 64-bit leIt (which is not shown the above example) is the InterIace ID or host part and it
is much more bigger: 64 bits or 2
64
hosts per subnet! For example, Irom the preIix
2001:0A3C:5437:ABCD::/64 an administrator can assign an IPv6 address
2001:0A3C:5437:ABCD:218:34EF:AD34:98D to a host.
IPv6 Address Scopes
Address types have well-deIined destination scopes:
IPv6 Address
Scopes
Description
Link-local address
only used Ior communications within the local subnetwork (automatic
address conIiguration, neighbor discovery, router discovery, and by many
routing protocols). It is only valid on the current subnet.
routers do not Iorward packets with link-local addresses.
are allocated with the FE80::/64 preIix -~ can be easily recognized by
the preIix FE80. Some books indicate the range oI link-local address is
FE80::/10, meaning the Iirst 10 bits are Iixed and link-local address can
begin with FE80, FE90,FEA0 and FEB0 but in Iact the next 54 bits are all
0s so you will only see the preIix FE80 Ior link-local address.
same as 169.254.x.x in IPv4, it is assigned when a DHCP server is
unavailable and no static addresses have been assigned
is usually created dynamically using a link-local preIix oI FE80::/10
and a 64-bit interIace identiIier.
Global unicast
address
unicast packets sent through the public Internet
globally unique throughout the Internet
starts with a 2000::/3 preIix (this means any address beginning with 2
or 3). But in the Iuture global unicast address might not have this
limitation
Site-local address
allows devices in the same organization, or site, to exchange data.
starts with the preIix FEC0::/10. They are analogous to IPv4s private
address classes.
Maybe you will be surprised because Site-local addresses are no longer
supported (deprecated) by RFC 3879 so maybe you will not see it in the
Iuture.

All nodes must have at least one link-local address, although each interIace can have multiple
addresses.
However, using them would also mean that NAT would be required and addresses would
again not be end-to-end.
Site-local addresses are no longer supported (deprecated) by RFC 3879.
Special IPv6 Addresses
IPv6 Address Description
::/0
All routes and used when speciIying a deIault static route
Equivalent to the IPv4 quad-zero (0.0.0.0)
::/128
UnspeciIied address and is initially assigned to a host when it Iirst
resolves its local link address.
::1/128
Loopback address oI local host.
Equivalent to 127.0.0.1 in IPv4.
can be used to veriIy that the TCP/IP protocol stack has been properly
installed on the host
FE80::/10
Link-local unicast address.
Similar to the Windows auto-conIiguration IP address oI 169.254.x.x.
FF00::/8 Multicast addresses
All other
addresses
Global unicast address
Reserved IPv6 Multicast Addresses
Reserved Multicast
Address
Description
FF02::1 All nodes on a link (link-local scope).
FF02::2 All routers on a link
FF02::9 All routing inIormation protocol (RIP) routers on a link
FF02::1:FFxx:xxxx
All solicited-node multicast addresses used Ior host auto-
conIiguration and neighbor discovery (similar to ARP in IPv4)
The xx:xxxx is the Iar right 24 bits oI the corresponding unicast
or anycast address oI the node
FF05::101 All Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers