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 the 32-bit addressing scheme of IP version 4 (IPv4) proved to be inadequate to meet the demands of Internet growth. IPv6 is based on IP but with a much larger address space and improvements such as a simplified main header and extension headers. IPv6 is described 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 version 3 (OSPFv3), and multiprotocol Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). Other available features include stateless autoconfiguration, enhanced support for Mobile IPv6, and an increased number of multicast 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 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.

Note	Two colons (::) can be used only once in an IPv6 address to represent the longest successive hexadecimal fields of zeros. The hexadecimal letters in IPv6 addresses are not case-sensitive.

The loopback address listed in the table above may be used by a node to send an IPv6 packet to itself. The loopback address in IPv6 functions the same as the loopback address in IPv4 (127.0.0.1).

Note

The IPv6 loopback address cannot be assigned to a physical interface. A packet that has the IPv6 loopback address as its source or destination address must remain within the node that created the packet. IPv6 devices do not forward packets that have the IPv6 loopback address as their source or destination address.

The unspecified address listed in the table above indicates the absence of an IPv6 address. For example, a newly initialized node on an IPv6 network may use the unspecified address as the source address in its packets until it receives its IPv6 address.

Note	The IPv6 unspecified address cannot be assigned to an interface. The unspecified IPv6 addresses must not be used as destination addresses in IPv6 packets or the IPv6 routing header.

An IPv6 address prefix, in the format ipv6-prefix/prefix-length, can be used to represent bit-wise contiguous blocks of the entire address space. The ipv6-prefix must be in the form documented in RFC 2373 where the address is specified in hexadecimal using 16-bit values between colons. The prefix length is a decimal value that indicates how many of the high-order contiguous bits of the address comprise the prefix (the network portion of the address). For example, 2001:DB8:8086:6502::/32 is a valid IPv6 prefix.

When IPv6 or IPv4 command output displays an IPv6 address, a long IPv6 address can overflow into neighboring fields, causing the output to be difficult to read. The output fields were designed to work with the longest possible IPv4 address, which has 15 characters; IPv6 addresses can be up to 39 characters long. The following scheme has been adopted in IPv4 and IPv6 commands to allow the appropriate length of IPv6 address to be displayed and move the following fields to the next line, if necessary. The fields that are moved are kept in alignment with the header row.

The following example displays eight connections. The first six connections feature IPv6 addresses; the last two connections feature IPv4 addresses.

Device# where
Conn Host                Address             Byte  Idle Conn Name
   1 test5               2001:DB8:3333:4::5    6    24 test5
   2 test4               2001:DB8:3333:44::5
                                               6    24 test4
   3 2001:DB8:3333:4::5 2001:DB8:3333:4::5     6    24 2001:DB8:3333:4::5
   4 2001:DB8:3333:44::5
                         2001:DB8:3333:44::5
                                               6    23 2001:DB8:3333:44::5
   5 2001:DB8:3000:4000:5000:6000:7000:8001
                         2001:DB8:3000:4000:5000:6000:7000:8001
                                               6    20 2001:DB8:3000:4000:5000:6000:
   6 2001:DB8:1::1      2001:DB8:1::1          0     1 2001:DB8:1::1
   7 10.1.9.1            10.1.9.1              0     0 10.1.9.1
   8 10.222.111.222      10.222.111.222        0     0 10.222.111.222

Connection 1 contains an IPv6 address that uses the maximum address length in the address field. Connection 2 shows the IPv6 address overflowing the address field and the following fields moved to the next line, but in alignment with the appropriate headers. Connection 3 contains an IPv6 address that fills the maximum length of the hostname and address fields without wrapping any lines. Connection 4 shows the effect of both the hostname and address fields containing a long IPv6 address. The output is shown over three lines keeping the correct heading alignment. Connection 5 displays a similar effect as connection 4 with a very long IPv6 address in the hostname and address fields. Note that the connection name field is actually truncated. Connection 6 displays a very short IPv6 address that does not require any change in the display. Connections 7 and 8 display short and long IPv4 addresses.

Note	The IPv6 address output display applies to all commands that display IPv6 addresses.

The basic IPv4 packet header has 12 fields with a total size of 20 octets (160 bits) (see the figure below). The 12 fields may be followed by an Options field, which is followed by a data portion that is usually the transport-layer packet. The variable length of the Options field adds to the total size of the IPv4 packet header. The shaded fields of the IPv4 packet header shown in the figure below are not included in the IPv6 packet header.

Figure 1

IPv4 Packet Header Format

The basic IPv6 packet header has 8 fields with a total size of 40 octets (320 bits) (see the figure below). Fields were removed from the IPv6 header because, in IPv6, fragmentation is not handled by devices and checksums at the network layer are not used. Instead, fragmentation in IPv6 is handled by the source of a packet and checksums at the data link layer and transport layer are used. (In IPv4, the UDP transport layer uses an optional checksum. In IPv6, use of the UDP checksum is required to check the integrity of the inner packet.) Additionally, the basic IPv6 packet header and Options field are aligned to 64 bits, which can facilitate the processing of IPv6 packets.

Figure 2

IPv6 Packet Header Format

The table below lists the fields in the basic IPv6 packet header.

Following the eight fields of the basic IPv6 packet header are optional extension headers and the data portion of the packet. If present, each extension header is aligned to 64 bits. There is no fixed number of extension headers in an IPv6 packet. The extension headers form a chain of headers. Each extension header is identified by the Next Header field of the previous header. Typically, the final extension header has a Next Header field of a transport-layer protocol, such as TCP or UDP. The figure below shows the IPv6 extension header format.

Figure 3

IPv6 Extension Header Format

The table below lists the extension header types and their Next Header field values.

IPv6 supports DNS record types that are supported in the DNS name-to-address and address-to-name lookup processes. The DNS record types support IPv6 addresses. IPv6 also supports the reverse mapping of IPv6 addresses to DNS names.

A name server is used to track information associated with domain names. A name server can maintain a database of hostname-to-address mappings. Each name can map to one or more IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses, or both address types. In order to use this service to map domain names to IPv6 addresses, you must specify a name server and enable the DNS.

Cisco software maintains a cache of hostname-to-address mappings for use by the connect, telnet, and ping commands, related Telnet support operations, and many other commands that generate command output. This cache speeds the conversion of names to addresses.

Similar to IPv4, IPv6 uses a naming scheme that allows a network device to be identified by its location within a hierarchical name space that provides for domains. Domain names are joined with periods (.) as the delimiting characters. For example, Cisco is a commercial organization that is identified by a com domain name, so its domain name is cisco.com. A specific device in this domain, the FTP server, for example, is identified as ftp.cisco.com.

The following table lists the IPv6 DNS record types.

The Cisco Discovery Protocol IPv6 address support for neighbor information feature adds the ability to transfer IPv6 addressing information between two Cisco devices. Cisco Discovery Protocol support for IPv6 addresses provides IPv6 information to network management products and troubleshooting tools.

The aggregatable nature of the IPv6 address space enables an IPv6 addressing hierarchy. For example, an enterprise can subdivide a single IPv6 prefix from a service provider into multiple, longer prefixes for use within its internal network. Conversely, a service provider can aggregate all of the prefixes of its customers into a single, shorter prefix that the service provider can then advertise over the IPv6 internet (see the figure below).

Figure 4

IPv6 Prefix Aggregation

Multiple IPv6 prefixes can be assigned to networks and hosts. Having multiple prefixes assigned to a network allows that network to connect easily to multiple ISPs without breaking the global routing table (see the figure below).

Figure 5

IPv6 Site Multihoming

In IPv6 networks, a data link is a network sharing a particular link-local prefix. Data links are networks arbitrarily segmented by a network administrator in order to provide a multilevel, hierarchical routing structure while shielding the subnetwork from the addressing complexity of attached networks. The function of a subnetwork in IPv6 is similar to a subnetwork in IPv4. A subnetwork prefix is associated with one data link; multiple subnetwork prefixes may be assigned to the same data link.

The following data links are supported for IPv6: ATM permanent virtual circuit (PVC) and ATM LANE, dynamic packet transport (DPT), Ethernet, Fast Ethernet, FDDI, Frame Relay PVC, Gigabit Ethernet, Cisco High-Level Data Link Control (HDLC), ISDN, PPP over Packet over SONET (PoS), and serial interfaces.

• IPv6 for Cisco Software Support for Wide-Area Networking Technologies
• IPv6 Addresses and PVCs

Routed bridge encapsulation (RBE) provides a mechanism for routing a protocol from a bridged interface to another routed or bridged interface. RBE for IPv6 can be used on ATM point-to-point subinterfaces that are configured for IPv6 half-bridging. Routing of IP packets and IPv6 half-bridging, bridging, PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE), or other Ethernet 802.3-encapsulated protocols can be configured on the same subinterface.

The IPv6 Redirect Messages feature enables a device to send ICMP IPv6 neighbor redirect messages to inform hosts of better first hop nodes (devices or hosts) on the path to a destination.

Integrated routing and bridging (IRB) enables users to route a given protocol between routed interfaces and bridge groups or route a given protocol between bridge groups. Specifically, local or unroutable traffic will be bridged among the bridged interfaces in the same bridge group, while routable traffic will be routed to other routed interfaces or bridge groups. If you want both bridging and routing capabilities, IRB is required. If you want only bridging, you must disable routing. To disable the routing function for IPv6, you must configure the no ipv6 unicast-routing command.

IPv6 is supported in the bridge virtual interface (BVI), which is the IPv4 interface for bridged interfaces. Because bridging is in the data link layer and routing is in the network layer, they have different protocol configuration models to follow. In the basic IPv4 model, for example, all bridged interfaces should belong to the same network, while each routed interface represents a distinct network. Routed traffic is destined for the device, while bridged traffic is never destined for the device. Using BVI avoids the confusion of which protocol configuration model to use when both bridging and routing a given protocol in the same bridge group.

Note	BVIs in IPv6 are not supported with Network Address Translation--Protocol Translation (NAT-PT).

The dual IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stack technique can be used to transition to IPv6. It enables gradual, one-by-one upgrades to applications running on nodes. Applications running on nodes are upgraded to make use of the IPv6 protocol stack. Applications that are not upgraded (for example, they support only the IPv4 protocol stack) can coexist with upgraded applications on a node. New and upgraded applications make use of both the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks (see the figure below).

Figure 6

Dual IPv4 and IPv6 Protocol Stack Technique

One application program interface (API) supports both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and DNS requests. An application can be upgraded to the new API and still use only the IPv4 protocol stack. The Cisco software supports the dual IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stack technique. When an interface is configured with both an IPv4 and an IPv6 address, the interface will forward both IPv4 and IPv6 traffic.

In the figure below, an application that supports dual IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks requests all available addresses for the destination hostname www.example.com from a DNS server. The DNS server replies with all available addresses (both IPv4 and IPv6 addresses) for www.example.com. The application chooses an address (in most cases, IPv6 addresses are the default choice), and connects the source node to the destination using the IPv6 protocol stack.

Figure 7

Dual IPv4 and IPv6 Protocol Stack Applications

1.    enable

2.    configure terminal

3.    interface type number

4.   Do one of the following:

5.    exit

6.    ipv6 unicast-routing

1.    enable

2.    configure terminal

3.    ipv6 unicast-routing

4.    interface type number

5.    ip address ip-address mask [secondary [vrf vrf-name]]

6.    ipv6 address {ipv6-address /prefix-length | prefix-name sub-bits / prefix-length}

1.    enable

2.    configure terminal

3.    ipv6 host name [port] ipv6-address1 [ipv6-address2...ipv6-address4]

4.   Do one of the following:

5.    ip name-server [vrf vrf-name] server-address1 [server-address2...server-address6]

6.    ip domain-lookup

1.    enable

2.    show ipv6 interface [brief] [type number] [prefix]

3.    show ipv6 neighbors [interface-type interface-number | ipv6-address | ipv6-hostname | statistics]

4.    show ipv6 route [ipv6-address | ipv6-prefix / prefix-length | protocol | interface-type interface-number]

5.    show ipv6 traffic

6.    show atm map

7.    show hosts [vrf vrf-name | all | hostname | summary]

8.    show running-config