An IPv6 Aggregatable Global Unicast Address Format
RFC 2374
Document | Type |
RFC - Historic
(July 1998; No errata)
Obsoleted by RFC 3587
Obsoletes RFC 2073
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Authors | Steve Deering , Bob Hinden , Michael O'Dell | ||
Last updated | 2013-03-02 | ||
Stream | IETF | ||
Formats | plain text html pdf htmlized bibtex | ||
Stream | WG state | (None) | |
Document shepherd | No shepherd assigned | ||
IESG | IESG state | RFC 2374 (Historic) | |
Consensus Boilerplate | Unknown | ||
Telechat date | |||
Responsible AD | (None) | ||
Send notices to | (None) |
Network Working Group R. Hinden Request for Comments: 2374 Nokia Obsoletes: 2073 M. O'Dell Category: Standards Track UUNET S. Deering Cisco July 1998 An IPv6 Aggregatable Global Unicast Address Format Status of this Memo This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for improvements. Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state and status of this protocol. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1998). All Rights Reserved. 1.0 Introduction This document defines an IPv6 aggregatable global unicast address format for use in the Internet. The address format defined in this document is consistent with the IPv6 Protocol [IPV6] and the "IPv6 Addressing Architecture" [ARCH]. It is designed to facilitate scalable Internet routing. This documented replaces RFC 2073, "An IPv6 Provider-Based Unicast Address Format". RFC 2073 will become historic. The Aggregatable Global Unicast Address Format is an improvement over RFC 2073 in a number of areas. The major changes include removal of the registry bits because they are not needed for route aggregation, support of EUI-64 based interface identifiers, support of provider and exchange based aggregation, separation of public and site topology, and new aggregation based terminology. The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119]. Hinden, et. al. Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 2374 IPv6 Global Unicast Address Format July 1998 2.0 Overview of the IPv6 Address IPv6 addresses are 128-bit identifiers for interfaces and sets of interfaces. There are three types of addresses: Unicast, Anycast, and Multicast. This document defines a specific type of Unicast address. In this document, fields in addresses are given specific names, for example "subnet". When this name is used with the term "ID" (for "identifier") after the name (e.g., "subnet ID"), it refers to the contents of the named field. When it is used with the term "prefix" (e.g. "subnet prefix") it refers to all of the addressing bits to the left of and including this field. IPv6 unicast addresses are designed assuming that the Internet routing system makes forwarding decisions based on a "longest prefix match" algorithm on arbitrary bit boundaries and does not have any knowledge of the internal structure of IPv6 addresses. The structure in IPv6 addresses is for assignment and allocation. The only exception to this is the distinction made between unicast and multicast addresses. The specific type of an IPv6 address is indicated by the leading bits in the address. The variable-length field comprising these leading bits is called the Format Prefix (FP). This document defines an address format for the 001 (binary) Format Prefix for Aggregatable Global Unicast addresses. The same address format could be used for other Format Prefixes, as long as these Format Prefixes also identify IPv6 unicast addresses. Only the "001" Format Prefix is defined here. 3.0 IPv6 Aggregatable Global Unicast Address Format This document defines an address format for the IPv6 aggregatable global unicast address assignment. The authors believe that this address format will be widely used for IPv6 nodes connected to the Internet. This address format is designed to support both the current provider-based aggregation and a new type of exchange-based aggregation. The combination will allow efficient routing aggregation for sites that connect directly to providers and for sites that connect to exchanges. Sites will have the choice to connect to either type of aggregation entity. Hinden, et. al. Standards Track [Page 2] RFC 2374 IPv6 Global Unicast Address Format July 1998 While this address format is designed to support exchange-based aggregation (in addition to current provider-based aggregation) it is not dependent on exchanges for it's overall route aggregation properties. It will provide efficient route aggregation with only provider-based aggregation. Aggregatable addresses are organized into a three level hierarchy:Show full document text