Wednesday, February 24, 2016

IPv6 Addressing and Basic Connectivity

Contents

IPv6 Addressing and Basic Connectivity

Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) expands the number of network address bits from 32 bits (in IPv4) to 128 bits, which provides more than enough globally unique IP addresses for every networked device on the planet. The unlimited address space provided by IPv6 allows Cisco to deliver more and newer applications and services with reliability, improved user experience, and increased security.
Implementing basic IPv6 connectivity in the Cisco software consists of assigning IPv6 addresses to individual device interfaces. IPv6 traffic forwarding can be enabled globally, and Cisco Express Forwarding switching for IPv6 can also be enabled. The user can enhance basic connectivity functionality by configuring support for AAAA record types in the Domain Name System (DNS) name-to-address and address-to-name lookup processes, and by managing IPv6 neighbor discovery.

Finding Feature Information

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest feature information and caveats, see the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the Feature Information Table at the end of this document.
Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/​go/​cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Restrictions for Implementing IPv6 Addressing and Basic Connectivity

  • IPv6 packets are transparent to Layer 2 LAN switches because the switches do not examine Layer 3 packet information before forwarding IPv6 frames. Therefore, IPv6 hosts can be directly attached to Layer 2 LAN switches.
  • Multiple IPv6 global addresses within the same prefix can be configured on an interface; however, multiple IPv6 link-local addresses on an interface are not supported.

Information About IPv6 Addressing and Basic Connectivity

IPv6 for Cisco Software

IPv6, formerly named IPng (next generation), is the latest version of the Internet Protocol (IP). IP is a packet-based protocol used to exchange data, voice, and video traffic over digital networks. IPv6 was proposed when it became clear that the 32-bit addressing scheme of IP version 4 (IPv4) was inadequate to meet the demands of Internet growth. After extensive discussion it was decided to base IPng on IP but add a much larger address space and improvements such as a simplified main header and extension headers. IPv6 is described initially in RFC 2460, Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6) Specification, issued by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). Further RFCs describe the architecture and services supported by IPv6.
The architecture of IPv6 has been designed to allow existing IPv4 users to transition easily to IPv6 while providing services such as end-to-end security, quality of service (QoS), and globally unique addresses. The larger IPv6 address space allows networks to scale and provide global reachability. The simplified IPv6 packet header format handles packets more efficiently. IPv6 prefix aggregation, simplified network renumbering, and IPv6 site multihoming capabilities provide an IPv6 addressing hierarchy that allows for more efficient routing. IPv6 supports widely deployed routing protocols such as Routing Information Protocol (RIP), Integrated Intermediate System-to-Intermediate System (IS-IS), Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) for IPv6, and multiprotocol Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). Other available features include stateless autoconfiguration and an increased number of multicast addresses.

Large IPv6 Address Space for Unique Addresses

The primary motivation for IPv6 is the need to meet the demand for globally unique IP addresses. IPv6 quadruples the number of network address bits from 32 bits (in IPv4) to 128 bits, which provides more than enough globally unique IP addresses for every networked device on the planet. By being globally unique, IPv6 addresses inherently enable global reachability and end-to-end security for networked devices, functionality that is crucial to the applications and services that are driving the demand for the addresses. Additionally, the flexibility of the IPv6 address space reduces the need for private addresses; therefore, IPv6 enables new application protocols that do not require special processing by border devices at the edge of networks.

IPv6 Address Formats

IPv6 addresses are represented as a series of 16-bit hexadecimal fields separated by colons (:) in the format: x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x. Following are two examples of IPv6 addresses:
2001:DB8:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210
2001:DB8:0:0:8:800:200C:417A
IPv6 addresses commonly contain successive hexadecimal fields of zeros. Two colons (::) may be used to compress successive hexadecimal fields of zeros at the beginning, middle, or end of an IPv6 address (the colons represent successive hexadecimal fields of zeros). The table below lists compressed IPv6 address formats.
A double colon may be used as part of the ipv6-address argument when consecutive 16-bit values are denoted as zero. You can configure multiple IPv6 addresses per interfaces, but only one link-local address.


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