Network Layer:

Internet Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6)

Lecture 14 | CSE421 – Computer Networks
Department of Computer Science and Engineering
School of Data & Science
IPv6

•Initial motivation:
• 32-bit address space soon to be completely allocated.

•Additional motivation:
• Simpler header format helps speed processing/forwarding
• header changes to facilitate QoS 2
Reasons for using IPv6
• Address Availability:
• IPv4: 4 octets - 32 bits
• 2^32 or 4,294,467,295 IP Addresses.

• IPv6: 16 octets - 128 bits

• 3.4 x 10^38 or
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456
(340 undecillion) IP Addresses.

• Every atom of every person on Earth could be assigned 7 unique addresses with some to
spare (assuming 3
7 × 1027 atoms per human x 6.5 Billion).
Reasons for Using IPv6
• IPv6 Features:

• fixed-length 40 byte header

• no fragmentation allowed

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IPv6 Datagram
40 Octets, 8 fields

5
Extension Headers

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Extension Headers
• Basic header simplified for ease of processing

• Additional information carried in extension headers

• Hop-by-hop options

• Routing header

• Fragment header

• Destination options header

• Authentication header (AH)

• Encrypted security payload (ESP) header

• Next Header field says what type of header follows 7

• E.g. Fragment Header, TCP, ICMP, etc.

The IPv4 Header

0 4 8 16 24 31

Ver IHL Service Type Total Length

Identifier Flags Fragment Offset

Time to Live Protocol Header Checksum

32 bit Source Address

32 bit Destination Address

Options and Padding

shaded fields are absent from IPv6 header

Header Changes between IPv4 and IPv6
• Revised
• Time to Live (Hop Limit)
• Addresses increased from 32 bits to 128 bits
• Protocol (Next Header)
• Precedence & TOS (Traffic Class)
• Extended
• Flow Label field added
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 IPv6 Address
Lecture 15 | Part 2 | CSE421 – Computer Networks
IPv6 Address
• 128 bits
• given below is a 128 bit IPv6 address represented in binary format and
divided into eight 16-bits blocks

• Each block is then converted into Hexadecimal and separated by ‘:’

symbol

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• Called string notation

IPv6 Addressing
• IPv6 Representation – Rule 1:
• The leading zeroes in any 16-bit segment do not have to be written. If
any 16-bit segment has fewer than four hexadecimal digits, it is assumed
that the missing digits are leading zeroes.
130B

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 IPv6 Addressing

• IPv6 Representation – Rule 2:

• Any single, contiguous string of one or more 16-bit segments
consisting of all zeroes can be represented once with a
double colon.
1080:0:0:0:8:800:200C:417A = 1080::8:800:200C:417A

FF01:0:0:0:0:0:0:101 = FF01::101

0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 = ::1

0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0 = ::
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IPv6 Addressing
• IPv6 Representation – Rule 2:
• Any single, contiguous string of one or more 16-bit segments
consisting of all zeroes can be represented once with a double colon.

Example: 1843:f01::22::fa

• Illegal because the length of the two all-zero strings is ambiguous.

1843:00f0:0000:0000:0022:0000:0000:00fa
or
1843:00f0:0000:0000:0000:0022:0000:00fa
or
1843:00f0:0000:0022:0000:0000:0000:00fa 18
Representing IPv6 addresses
• No more net masks

• Represented by a “/prefixlen” appended to the end of an address where

prefixlen indicates the number of bits in the address that make up the
network address
• Similar to classless address representation in IPv4

• For example:
2001:db8:abcd:0012::0/64 specifies a subnet with a range of IP
addresses from:
2001:db8:abcd:0012:0000:0000:0000:0000 to
2001:db8:abcd:0012:ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff.
Network part : 2001:db8:abcd:0012 15

Host part : ::0

Types of IPv6 addresses
• unicast
• communicate specified 1 computer
• multicast
• communicate group of computers
• anycast
• send group address that can receive multiple computers,
but receive 1 computer
g a
s d s g s a
g a 20

unicast multicast anycast

Types of IPv6 addresses

•Unlike IPv4, there is no broadcast address.

•There is an “all nodes multicast” which serves
the same purpose.

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Unicast Global Addresses

•These are assigned by the IANA and used on public

networks.

•They are equivalent to IPv4 global (sometimes called

public) addresses.

•Typically they start at 2000::/3

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Unicast addresses
■ A unicast address is an address that identifies a single
device.
• Types of Unicast Addresses:

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Unicast Global Addresses

• The host portion of the address is called the Interface ID.

•Can contain:
• The interface’s 48-bit MAC Address.
• An identifier derived from the EUI-64 Address
(more later).

• A manually configured address. 24

Special Addresses
• Unspecified Address:
• ::/128
• In a host, it refers to the host itself,
and is used when a device does not
know its own address
• For addressing purposes within a
software. .
• Loopback Address
• ::1/128
• loopback (same as 127.0.0.1 in many
IPv4 implementations)
• In IPv6 there is just one address, not a 21

whole block, for this function.

Unique Local Unicast Address
• FC00::/7
• Globally unique,
• But it should be used in local communication.

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Link Local Unicast Address
• FE80::/10
• These addresses refer only to a particular physical network.
• Routers do not forward datagrams using link-local addresses.
• They are only for local communication on a particular physical network segment.
• Automatic address configuration.
• Neighbor discovery.
• Router discovery. etc

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Scope of IPv6 Unicast Addresses

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Multicast Addresses

• Consisting of all addresses that begin with “1111 1111” i.e “FF”

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 Multicast Addresses
• Multicast addresses are used to send data to a number of devices on an
internetwork simultaneously.
• Each multicast address can be specified for a variety of different scopes
• allowing a transmission to be targeted to either a wide or narrow audience of recipient
devices.

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Anycast Addresses
• To provide flexibility in situations where we need a service that is
provided by a number of different servers or routers but don't
really care which one provides it.
• In routing, anycast allows datagrams to be sent to whichever
router in a group of equivalent routers is closest

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Anycast Addresses

•There is no special anycast addressing scheme:

anycast addresses are the same as unicast
addresses.
•An anycast address is created “automatically”
when a unicast address is assigned to more than
one interface.
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 Interface part

• Manually give the interface ID part

▪ Corp(config-if)#ipv6 address 2001:db8:3c4d:1::1/64

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 Interface part : Using an EUI-64

• EUI-64(extended unique identifier)

• How to stretch IEEE 802 MAC addresses from 48 to 64 bits
• Done by inserting the 16-bit 0xFFFE in the middle at the 24th bit of
the MAC address
• To create a 64-bit, unique interface identifier.
▪ Corp(config-if)#ipv6 address 2001:db8:3c4d:1::/64 eui-64 41
Using an EUI-64

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 Using an EUI-64
• Using EUI-64.

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Transition from IPv4 to IPv6
 IPv4 to IPv6 Transition
Strategies and mechanisms:

• IPv4 to IPv6 transition is gradual

• IPv6 devices need to communicate to IPv4
• IPv6 needs to communicate over IPv4 links

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Transition Techniques
Three categories:

• Dual-stack
techniques

• Tunneling
Techniques

• Translation
techniques

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Dual Stack
• Method in which a node has implementation and connectivity
to both an IPv4 and IPv6 network.

• The recommended option.

• Involves running IPv4 and IPv6 at the same time.

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 IPv6 Tunneling

• Tunneling is an integration method where an IPv6

packet is encapsulated within another protocol.

• Tunneling encapsulates the IPv6 packet in the IPv4 63

packet.
 IPv6 Tunneling

• When IPv4 is used to encapsulate the IPv6 packet:

• Protocol type of 41.
• 20-byte IPv4 header with no options.
• IPv6 header and payload. 64

• Requires dual stacked routers.

NAT Protocol Translation
• Important method of transition to IPv6 by means of a NAT-PT (Network
Address Translation – Protocol Translation) enabled device.

When the IPv4 host sends a request packet to the IPv6 server, the NAT-PT device/router
strips down the IPv4 packet, removes IPv4 header, and adds IPv6 header and passes it
through the Internet. When a response from the IPv6 server comes for the IPv4 host, the
router does vice versa.
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THE END