The following is a summary of each topic in the chapter and some questions for your reflection.
What Did I Learn in This Chapter? (33.6.1)
• IPv6 Address Types—There are three types of IPv6 addresses: unicast, multicast, and anycast. IPv6 does not use the dotted-decimal subnet mask notation. Like IPv4, the prefix length is represented in slash notation and is used to indicate the network portion of an IPv6 address. An IPv6 unicast address uniquely identifies an interface on an IPv6-enabled device. IPv6 addresses typically have two unicast addresses: global unique address (GUA) and link-local address (LLA). IPv6 unique local addresses have the following uses: they are used for local addressing within a site or between a limited number of sites, they can be used for devices that will never need to access another network, and they are not globally routed or translated to a global IPv6 address. IPv6 GUAs are globally unique and routable on the IPv6 Internet. These addresses are equivalent to public IPv4 addresses. A GUA has three parts: a global routing prefix, a subnet ID, and an interface ID. An IPv6 LLA enables a device to communicate with other IPv6-enabled devices on the same link and only on that link (subnet). Devices can obtain an LLA either statically or dynamically.
• GUA and LLA Static Configuration—The Cisco IOS command to configure an IPv4 address on an interface is ip address ip-address subnet-mask. In contrast, the command to configure an IPv6 GUA on an interface is ipv6 address ipv6-address/prefix-length. Just as with IPv4, configuring static addresses on clients does not scale to larger environments. For this reason, most network administrators in an IPv6 network will enable dynamic assignment of IPv6 addresses. Configuring the LLA manually lets you create an address that is recognizable and easier to remember. Typically, it is only necessary to create recognizable LLAs on routers. LLAs can be configured manually using the ipv6 address ipv6-link-local-address link-local command.
• Dynamic Addressing for IPv6 GUAs—A device obtains a GUA dynamically through ICMPv6 messages. IPv6 routers periodically send out ICMPv6 RA messages, every 200 seconds, to all IPv6-enabled devices on the network. An RA message will also be sent in response to a host sending an ICMPv6 RS message, which is a request for an RA message. The ICMPv6 RA message includes: network prefix and prefix length, default gateway address, and the DNS addresses and domain name. RA messages have three methods: SLAAC, SLAAC with a stateless DHCPv6 server, and stateful DHCPv6 (no SLAAC). With SLAAC, the client device uses the information in the RA message to create its own GUA because the message contains the prefix and the interface ID. With SLAAC with stateless DHCPv6 the RA message suggests devices use SLAAC to create their own IPv6 GUA, use the router LLA as the default gateway address, and use a stateless DHCPv6 server to obtain other necessary information.
With stateful DHCPv6 the RA suggests that devices use the router LLA as the default gateway address, and the stateful DHCPv6 server to obtain a GUA, a DNS server address, domain name, and all other necessary information. The interface ID can be created using the EUI-64 process or a randomly generated 64-bit number. The EUIs process uses the 48-bit Ethernet MAC address of the client and inserts another 16 bits in the middle of the MAC address to create a 64-bit interface ID. Depending upon the operating system, a device may use a randomly generated interface ID.
• Dynamic Addressing for IPv6 LLAs—All IPv6 devices must have an IPv6 LLA. An LLA can be configured manually or created dynamically. Operating systems, such as Windows, will typically use the same method for both a SLAAC-created GUA and a dynamically assigned LLA. Cisco routers automatically create an IPv6 LLA whenever a GUA is assigned to the interface. By default, Cisco IOS routers use EUI-64 to generate the interface ID for all LLAs on IPv6 interfaces. For serial interfaces, the router will use the MAC address of an Ethernet interface. To make it easier to recognize and remember these addresses on routers, it is common to statically configure IPv6 LLAs on routers. To verify IPv6 address configuration, use the following three commands: show ipv6 interface brief, show ipv6 route, and ping.
• IPv6 Multicast Addresses—There are two types of IPv6 multicast addresses: well-known multicast addresses and solicited-node multicast addresses. Assigned multicast addresses are reserved multicast addresses for predefined groups of devices. Well-known multicast addresses are assigned. Two common IPv6 assigned multicast groups are: ff02::1 All-nodes multicast group and ff02::2 All-routers multicast group. A solicited-node multicast address is similar to the all-nodes multicast address. The advantage of a solicited-node multicast address is that it is mapped to a special Ethernet multicast address.
This chapter had a lot of information about IPv6! You learned that there are three types of IPv6 addresses: unicast, multicast, and anycast. IPv6 does not use the dotted-decimal subnet mask notation.
- What did you learn about static addressing for LLA and GUA?
- What is an advantage in static addressing?
- At your office or university, what would be a disadvantage of static addressing?