Technical Guide

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

Feature Overview and Configuration Guide

Introduction
This guide describes the main features of IPv6, the implementation of IPv6 and how to
configure and operate IPv6 on the device.

The following IPv6 features are discussed:

 IPv6 address and prefixes

 Neighbor and router discovery

 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC)

 RA Guard

 IPv6 neighbor discovery proxy for AR Series switches

Products and software version that apply to this guide

This guide applies to AlliedWare Plus™ products that support IPv6, running version 5.4.4
or later.

The behavior of the command ipv6 enable is not applicable to software releases earlier
than 5.4.7. See the section titled: "Configuring SLAAC" on page 16 for more detail.

Support and implementation of IPv6 varies between products. To see whether a product
supports a particular feature or command, see the following documents:

 The product’s Datasheet

 The product’s Command Reference

These documents are available from the above links on our website at alliedtelesis.com.

Feature support may change in later software versions. For the

latest information, see the above documents.

x
C613-22006-00 REV C alliedtelesis.com
 Introduction

Content
Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 1
Products and software version that apply to this guide .............................................. 1

Overview ............................................................................................................................ 3

IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes ............................................................................................. 3

Address types.............................................................................................................. 4
IPv6 headers ................................................................................................................ 6
The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6) ....................................................... 9
Neighbor Discovery ................................................................................................... 10

Operation of Neighbour and Router Discovery................................................................ 12

Neighbor solicitation .................................................................................................. 12
Solicited-node multicast address .............................................................................. 13
Router discovery........................................................................................................ 13
Configuring router advertisements on AlliedWare Plus ............................................. 14
Redirect ..................................................................................................................... 14

Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) ................................................................ 15

Configuring SLAAC .......................................................................................................... 16

Setting up an IPv6 interface using the EUI-64 algorithm........................................... 17
Encryption and authentication in IPv6 ....................................................................... 18
AH – Authentication Header – commonly MD5 or SHA ............................................ 18
ESP – Encapsulated Security Payload – commonly 3DES or AES ........................... 19
The Flow label............................................................................................................ 20
IPv6 routing................................................................................................................ 20
Configuring IPv6 routing ............................................................................................ 21
IPv6 interface states .................................................................................................. 21
Integration of IPv4 and IPv6 ...................................................................................... 23

IPv6 RA Guard.................................................................................................................. 23
Rogue RAs................................................................................................................. 23
RA Guard on AlliedWare Plus switches ..................................................................... 24
RA Guard classifiers .................................................................................................. 24
Enabling IPv6 RA Guard ............................................................................................ 24

IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Proxy (AR-Series only)............................................................. 25

WAN assignment via SLAAC with IPv6 ND proxy ..................................................... 25
WAN assignment via DHCP prefix delegation - without IPv6 ND proxy ................... 28

Page 2 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 Overview

Overview
IPv6 is the next generation of the Internet Protocol (IP). It has primarily been developed to
solve the problem of the eventual exhaustion of the IPv4 address space, but also offers
other enhancements. IPv6 addresses are 16 bytes long, in contrast to IPv4’s 4 byte
addresses. Other features of IPv6 include:

Address structure improvements

 globally unique addresses with more levels of addressing hierarchy to reduce the
size of routing tables

 improved scalability of multicast routing by adding a scope field to multicast

addresses

 a new type of addressing method, the anycast address, which sends packets to
any one of a group of devices. This method removes the need for packet
fragmentation en-route, by dynamic determination of the largest packet size that is
supported by every link in the path. A link’s MTU (Maximum Transmission Unit)
must be at least 1280 bytes, compared with 576 bytes for IPv4.

IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes

IPv6 addresses have a hexadecimal format that is made up of eight pairs of octets
separated by colons. An example of a valid address is
2001:0db8:0000:0000:0260:0000:97ff:64aa. In the interests of brevity, addresses can be
abbreviated in two ways:

 Leading zeros can be omitted, so this address can be written as:

2001:db8:0:0:260:0:97ff:64aa.

 Consecutive zeros can be replaced with a double colon, so this address can be written
as 2001:db8::260:0:97ff:64a. Note that a double colon can replace any number of
consecutive zeros, but an address can contain only one double colon.

Like IPv4 addresses, a proportion of the leftmost bits of the IPv6 address can be used to
indicate the subnet, rather than a single node. This part of the address is called the prefix.
Prefixes provide the equivalent functionality to a subnet mask in IPv4, allowing a subnet to
be addressed, rather than a single node. If a prefix is specified, the IPv6 address is
followed by a slash and the number of bits that represent the prefix. For example, 2001::/
16 indicates that the first 16 bits (2001) of the address 2001:0:0:0:0:0:0:0 represent the
prefix.

Like IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses are attached to interfaces. Note that IPv6 addressing
is supported on PPP interfaces as well as VLAN, tunnel, and Ethernet interfaces.

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 3

 IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes

Address types
IPv6 supports the following address types:

 Unicast

 Multicast

 Anycast

Unicast addresses
A unicast address is attached to a single interface and delivers packets only to that
interface.

Unicast addresses can be grouped into 3 address scopes:

1. Link-local

2. Global

3. Unique-local

Link-local—these addresses start with FE8x: and are used in a single link or subnet. Any
packets that are transmitted with a link local source/destination address scope are never
routed out of that subnet.

Global—these addresses usually fall into the 2000::/3 prefix. They are the equivalent of
public IPv4 addresses. Global scoped addresses can be routed publicly in the Internet.
Any device or site that wishes to transmit packets to another site must be uniquely
identified with a global address. Some global addresses are allocated to special
purposes. FC00::/7 is outside the 2000::/3 prefix, but FC00::/7 is still considered as a
global scope address.

Unique-local—are unique global scope addresses that cannot be routed across the
global Internet IPv6 address space. Layer 3 devices will not forward any packets with
unique-local source or destination addresses outside of the private enterprise or customer
site. IPv6 routing between multiple unique-local subnets within a private enterprise is
allowed.
There is a bit of history to which address ranges have become used for local addresses.
Originally it was the range fec0 : : /10 (RFC 1884). But the term ‘site-local’ was not well
defined in the original definition of site-local addresses. The use of fec0 : : /10 was
deprecated in RFC 3879. Shortly later, a new range was defined - fc00 : : /7 (RFC 4193) for
Unique-local address ranges.

Reserved for documentation:

 3FFF:FFFF::/32

 2001:db8::/32

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 IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes

Used for 6 to 4 tunneling:

 2002::/16

Note: The AlliedWare Plus implementation of 6 to 4 tunneling has been deactivated,

although, IANA still allocated the 2002::/16 prefix as the 6 to 4 prefix. For
information on the current special use addresses, see the: IPv6 Special-Purpose
Address Registry.

Used for IPv4 mapped IPv6 addresses:

 ::ffff:0:0/96

These addresses are typically written with a 96-bit prefix in the standard IPv6 format,
and the remaining 32 bits written in the customary dot-decimal notation of IPv4. For
example, ::ffff:198.0.2.128 represents the IPv4 address 198.0.2.128. A deprecated for-
mat for IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses is ::198.0.2.128.

The following special addresses have been defined:

 The loopback address, consisting of ::1, which is the equivalent of the IPv4 loopback
address and allows a host to send packets to itself.

 The unspecified address, consisting of ::, which is the equivalent of the IPv4
unspecified address and is used as a source address by hosts during the
autoconfiguration process.

Multicast addresses
Multicast addresses start with FFxx: and they operate the same as the IPv4 multicast
addresses. Interfaces can belong to one or more multicast groups and will accept a
multicast packet only if they belong to the group corresponding to the packet’s
destination address.

There are no broadcast packets in IPv6, instead the IPv6 protocol uses IPv6 multicast
packets to do the job of an IPv4 broadcast packet. Multicasting provides a much more
efficient mechanism than broadcasting, which requires that every host on a link accept
and process each broadcast packet.

Multicast address scopes

The scope of a multicast address is indicated by the fourth hex digit in the address, i.e.
the digit ‘E’ in the FF0E:: prefix. The 4-bit scope field is used to indicate where the
address is valid and unique. The following table lists some multicast address scopes:

Table 1: Multicast address scopes

VALUE SCOPE MEANING

FF01:: interface-local The current scope as defined in RFC 7346

FF02:: link-local Forwarded only within a subnet on an Ethernet segment

FF04:: admin-local Forwarded within a small administratively- defined topology

FF05:: site-local Forwarded only within a single site

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 5

 IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes

Table 1: Multicast address scopes (Continued) (Continued)

VALUE SCOPE MEANING

FF08:: organisational-local Forwarding can span multiple sites of a single organization

FF0E:: global Can be sent across the Internet

Anycast addresses
An anycast address is a unicast address that is attached to more than one interface. If a
packet is sent to an anycast address it is delivered to the nearest interface with that
address, with the definition of “nearest” depending on the protocol used for routing. If the
protocol is RIPv6, the nearest interface is the one that is the shortest number of hops
away.

Anycast addresses packets cannot originate from an anycast address. An interface must
be configured to know that it is using an anycast address because the address format
cannot be distinguished from that of a unicast address.

Only one anycast address has been predefined: the subnet-router address. The subnet-
router address sends messages to the nearest router on a subnet and consists of the
subnet’s prefix followed by zeros.

IPv6 headers
The basic unit of data sent through an Internet is called a packet in IPv6. A packet
consists of a header followed by the data. The following figure shows the IPv6 packet.

Figure 1: IPv6 packet structure

1 2 3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
Ver Traffic Class Flow Label
Payload Length Next Header Hop Limit

128-bit source IP address

128-bit destination IP address

Optional extension headers

User data

IPv61

Page 6 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes

Table 2: IPv6 packet - Field descriptions

FIELD FUNCTION

Ver Version of the IP protocol that created the packet. For IPv6, this field has
a value of 6.
Traffic Class 8-bit Traffic Class field that contains the 6-bit DSCP and is used to
prioritize traffic as part of a Quality of Service system.
Traffic Class allows packets to be labelled with an appropriate priority. If
the network becomes congested, the lowest priority packets are
dropped
Additional information can be found in RFC 2474, Definition of the
Differentiated Services Field (DS Field) in the IPv4 and IPv6 Headers.

Flow Label 20-bit value that indicates the data flow to which this packet
belongs.This flow may be handled in a particular way.
Flow labels indicate to intermediate switches and routers that packets
are part of a flow, and that a particular flow requires a particular type of
service. This feature enables, for example, real-time processing of data
streams. It also increases routing speed because the forwarding router
or switch needs only to check the flow label, not the rest of the header.
The handling indicated by the flow label can be done by the IPv6 Hop-
by-Hop header, or by a separate protocol such as RSVP (Resource
Reservation Protocol).
Payload Length Length of the user data portion of the packet. If the data payload is larger
than 64 kB, the length is given in the optional “Jumbo Payload” header
and the Payload Length header is given a value of zero.

Next Header Number that indicates the type of header that immediately follows the
basic IP header. This header type may be an optional IPv6 extension
header, a relevant IPv4 option header, or another protocol, such as TCP
or ICMPv6.
The IPv6 extension header values are:
0 (Hop-by-Hop Options Header)
43 (IPv6 Routing Header)
44 (IPv6 Fragment Header)
50 (Encapsulating Security Payload)
51 (IPv6 Authentication Header)
59 (No Next Header)
60 (Destination Options Header)
Hop Limit Field that is the equivalent of the IPv4 Time To Live field, measured in
hops.

Source IP address 128-bit IPv6 address of the sender.

Destination IP address 128-bit IPv6 address of the recipient.

Optional extension Headers for less-frequently used information.

headers
User data Payload.

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 7

 IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes

Basic IPv6 header structure

The headers contain information necessary to move the packet across the Internet. They
must be able to cope with missing and duplicated packets as well as possible
fragmentation (and reassembly) of the original packet.IPv6 headers are twice as long as
IPv4 headers (40 bytes instead of 20 bytes) and contain four times the address space size
(128 bits instead of 32 bits).

They no longer contain the header length, identification, flags, fragment offset, and header
checksum fields. Some of these options are placed in extension headers. The Time To
Live field is replaced with a hop limit, and the IPv4 Type of Service field is replaced with
the Traffic Class field.

The Differentiated Services field contains the DSCP bits, used in a Quality of Service
(QoS) regime. RFC-8200 explains Traffic Class as:

 The 8-bit Traffic Class field in the IPv6 header is used by the network for traffic
management. The value of the Traffic Class bits in a received packet or fragment might
be different from the value sent by the packet's source.

The current use of the Traffic Class field for Differentiated Services and Explicit
Congestion Notification is specified in [RFC2474] and [RFC3168].

The following table explains IPv4 header fields that changed in IPv6:

Table 3: IPv4 header fields changed in IPv6

CHANGED FIELD DESCRIPTION

Type of Service The type of service that a connection should receive is indicated in
IPv6 by the Flow Label field in the IPv6 header.
Fragmentation information In most cases fragmentation does not occur in IPv6. If it does,
(the Identification field, the packets are fragmented at their source and not en route. Therefore,
Flags field and the the fragmentation information is contained in an extension header to
Fragment Offset field) reduce the size of the basic IPv6 header.

Header Checksum This option has not been provided in IPv6. This is because transport
protocols implement checksums and because of the availability of the
IPsec authentication header (AH) in IPv6.
Options Extension headers handle all the optional values associated with IPv6
packets. The biggest advantage of this scheme is that the size of the
basic IP header is a constant.

Extension IPv6 implements many of the less commonly used fields in the IPv4 header (or their
headers equivalents) as extension headers, which are placed after the basic IPv6 header. The
length of each header must be a multiple of 8 bytes.

The first extension header is identified by the Next Header field in the basic IPv6 header.
Any subsequent extension headers are identified by an 8-bit “Next Header” value at the
beginning of the preceding extension header.

Page 8 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes

IPv6 nodes that originate packets are required to place extension headers in a specific
order:

1. The basic IPv6 header. This must come immediately before the extension headers.

2. The Hop-by-Hop header. This specifies options that must be examined by every node
in the routing path.

3. A Destination Options header. This is used to specify options to be processed by the

first destination or final destination. The destination options header is the only
extension header that may be present more than once in the IPv6 packet.

4. The Routing header. This enables a static path to be specified for the packet, if the
dynamically-determined path is undesirable.

5. The Fragment header. This indicates that the source node has fragmented the packet,
and contains information about the fragmentation.

6. The Authentication header (AH). This verifies the integrity of the packet and its headers.

7. The Encapsulating Security Payload (ESP) header. This encrypts a packet and verifies
the integrity of its contents.

8. Another Destination Options Header. Processed by the final destination of the packet.

9. The Upper Layer Protocol header. This indicates which protocol a higher layer (such as
the Transport layer) is to process the packet with (for example, TCP).

The Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMPv6)

The Internet Control Message Protocol, ICMPv6, provides a mechanism for error reporting
and route discovery and diagnostics. It also conveys information about multicast group
membership, a function that is carried out by the Internet Group Management Protocol
(IGMP) in IPv4, and performs address resolution, which the Address Resolution Protocol
(ARP) performs in IPv4.

Significant aspects of ICMPv6 include neighbor discovery, which enables one device in a
network to find out about other nearby devices; and stateless address autoconfiguration,
which allows a device to dynamically determine its own IPv6 address.

ICMPv6 is also used to support the Ping v6 (Packet Internet Groper) and Trace route v6
functions that are used to verify the connections between networks and network devices.
Ping is used to test the connectivity between two network devices to determine whether
each network device can “see” the other device. Trace route is used to discover the route
used to pass packets between two systems running the IP protocol.

Ping and Trace route operate almost identically in IPv4 and IPv6.

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 9

 IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes

Neighbor Discovery
Neighbor Discovery is an ICMPv6 function that enables a router or a host to identify other
devices on its links.

The IPv6 Neighbor Discovery protocol is similar to a combination of the IPv4 protocols
ARP, ICMP Router Discovery and ICMP Redirect.

The following table describes packet types involved with IPv6 Neighbor Discovery:

Table 4: Packet types involved with neighbor discovery

PACKET TYPE DESCRIPTION

router solicitation Packet in which a host sends out a request for routers to generate
advertisements.
router advertisement Allows routers to advertise their presence and other network
parameters. A router sends an advertisement packet in response to a
solicitation packet from a host.

neighbor solicitation Packet in which a node sends a packet to determine the link layer
address of a neighbor or to verify that a neighbor is still active.
neighbor advertisement A response to a neighbor solicitation packet. These packets are also
used to notify neighbors of link layer address changes.

redirect Informs hosts of a better first hop.

Note: To comply with Section 6.2.1 of RFC 4861, IPv6 Neighbor Discovery, the router
does not generate Router Advertisements by default.

Page 10 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 IPv6 Addresses and Prefixes

The following table explains packet types and services:

Table 5: Packet types and services

PACKET TYPE DESCRIPTION

address resolution Translation of Layer 3 destination to the Layer 2 address. This is

achieved using the Neighbor Solicitation Message and the
Neighbor Advertisement Message.
router and prefix discovery On connection to a link, a node needs to know the address of a
router that the node can use to reach the rest of the world. The node
also needs to know the prefix (or prefixes) that define the range of
IP addresses on its link that it can reach without going through a
router.
Routers use ICMP to convey this information to hosts, by means of
Router Advertisements. The message may have an option attached
(the source link address option), which enables the receiving node
to respond directly to the router, without performing a neighbor
solicitation.

immediate information The configuration of a router includes a defined frequency at which

unsolicited advertisements are sent. If a node wants to obtain
information about the nearest router immediately, rather than
waiting for the next unsolicited advertisement, the node can send a
router solicitation message.
Each router that receives the solicitation message sends a Router
Advertisement specifically to the node that sent the solicitation.
redirection If a node is aware of more than one router that it can use to connect
to wider networks, the router to which it sends packets by default
does not always represent the most desirable route. Routers use the
ICMPv6 redirect packet to communicate a more effective path to
the node.

Neighbor Unreachability A node may issue solicitation requests to determine whether it can
Detection (NUD) reach an interface, or may listen in on acknowledgement packets of
higher layer protocols, such as TCP.
If the node determines that a neighbor is no longer reachable, it
attempts to reach the neighbor, or to re-establish the previous link.
NUD can be used between any two devices in the network,
independent of whether the devices are acting as hosts or routers.

There are five IPv6 Neighbor Discovery messages that replace existing IPv4 messages:

Table 6: IPv6 replacement types

IPV6 DISCOVERY ICMPV6 TYPE REPLACE THESE IPV4 MESSAGES

MESSAGES

Router Solicitation 133 ICMPv4 Router Discovery

Router Advertisement 134
Neighbor Solicitation 135 ARP
Neighbor Advertisement 136

Redirect 137 ICMPv4 Redirect

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 11

 Operation of Neighbour and Router Discovery

Operation of Neighbour and Router Discovery

Neighbor solicitation
IPv6’s replacement for ARP is Neighbor solicitation, which uses two ICMP messages:

 Neighbor Solicitation (ICMPv6 Type 135)

 Neighbor Advertisement (ICMPv6 Type 136)

Neighbor solicitation messages perform the following functionality:

 They allow IPv6 nodes (IPv6 hosts and IPv6 routers) to resolve the Link Layer address
of a neighboring node (a node on the same physical or logical link).

 When the Link Layer address of a neighboring node has changed, Neighbor Discovery
messages allow the other IPv6 nodes to learn that this address has changed.

 They enable IPv6 nodes to determine whether neighboring nodes are still reachable.

In the diagram below, Host A sends a multicast packet (Neighbor solicitation), and if Host
C is operational it will respond to this packet with a Neighbor Advertisement packet.

Figure 2: Neighbor solicitation

A
What is neighbour
C’s link address?
Ro
ut
er
A

C
Here’s my link
address...
Ro

Neighbour Solicitation
ut
er
B

Neighbour Advertisement

Page 12 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 Operation of Neighbour and Router Discovery

Solicited-node multicast address

When requesting the identity of the host that possesses a given IPv6 address, it is more
efficient to multicast the request to potential candidates, rather than multicast to all hosts.
This means that hosts that cannot possibly possess the address do not have to process
unnecessary multicast packets. Solicited-node addresses are often flooded by switches
and filtered by NIC cards drivers.

The multicast address used is called the solicited-node multicast address. It is created by
attaching the last three bytes of the requested address to FF02::1:FF00:0

For example:

Address being requested: 2001: : 2AA:FF:F28:9C5A

1. Begin with FF02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001:FF00:0000

2. Take the last 3 bytes of the requested address: 28:9C5A

3. Attached them to the address FF02::1:FF00:0

This is the solicited-node multicast address: FF02:0000:0000:0000:0000:0001:FF28:9C5A

Router discovery
IPv4 hosts need either an administrator to manually configure the default gateway or
DHCP to provide this information. When IPv6 is being used, the host themselves can
automatically locate routers on the LAN. The host achieves this by using two different
ICMPv6 messages.

They are:

 Router Solicitation (ICMPv6 Type 133)

 Router Advertisement (ICMPv6 Type 134)

When a host is first connected to a LAN, it will send an IPv6 Router Solicitation packet to
request information about routers on the network. Each router which is active on the LAN
will respond to this packet by sending a Router Advertisement (RA) with its address to all
nodes in the group. It informs the host what network address(es) is (are) in use on the
subnet. It also informs the host if it is a default gateway.

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 13

 Operation of Neighbour and Router Discovery

Figure 3: Router discovery

A
Any routers
on the link?

Ro
ut
er
I’m a router!

A
B

Ro
Router Solicitation

ut
er
I’m a router!

B
Router Advertisement

As well as responding to router solicitation events, a router will also send out RAs at
regular intervals.

Configuring router advertisements on AlliedWare Plus

RAs are configured on AlliedWare Plus on a per-interface basis.

To enable RAs use the command:

awplus(config-if)#no ipv6 nd suppress-ra

The options available are:

 IPv6 nd prefix<x:x.../N> which sets the prefix to advertise.

 IPv6 nd ra-interval <seconds> which sets the period of periodic RAs.

 IPv6 nd ra-lifetime <seconds> which sets the time for which the router will act as a
default router, set this to zero to inform hosts that this is not a default router.

Redirect
Redirect uses ICMP type 137 to inform a host of a better router to use as the gateway to a
given destination. If a router receives a packet and has to forward that packet to another
router in the same subnet, it will also send a redirect back to the sender, telling it to send
directly to the other router.

Page 14 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC)

Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC)

SLAAC allows an IPv6-aware device to be plugged into a network without manual
configuration with an IP address. This plug and play functionality results in networks that
are easier to set up and modify, and simplifies the process of shifting to use a new Internet
Service Provider (ISP).

SLAAC is achieved using a series of steps. Routers and hosts perform the first three steps
described below, which autoconfigure a link-local address. Then a global address is
autoconfigured in the last three steps, which only hosts perform.

Generate a 1. During system start-up, the device begins autoconfiguration by generating a link-local
link-local address for the interface. An EUI-64 link-local address is formed by adding the
address on the interface ID to the link-local prefix fe80::/10 (reference RFC 3513). Alternatively, a link-
router or host
local address can be statically configured.

2. The device performs Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) by transmitting a neighbor

solicitation message to this address. If the address is already in use, the node that the
address belongs to replies with a Neighbor Advertisement (NA) message. The
autoconfiguration process stops and manual configuration of the node is then
required.

3. If no neighbor advertisement is received, the node concludes that the address is

available and assigns the link-local address to the chosen interface.

Note: The following steps assume the router is pre-configured with a global unicast IPv6
address, and with IPv6 Router Advertisement (RA) suppression, and Neighbor
Discovery (ND) suppression disabled on the interface that the host is attached to.

Configure a 4. The host then sends one or more router solicitations to detect if any routers are present.
global address Any routers present respond with an RA. Routers may also periodically transmit RAs.
on the host If the router is also acting as a DHCPv6 server, it can optionally set the Managed (M)
or Other Information (O) flags contained within the RAs, to inform any host devices that
it can supply additional information, such as IPv6 address, or DNS addressing.

If no RA is received, the host can attempt to use DHCP to obtain a globally scoped
IPv6 address and other configuration information such as address or DNS. If no
DHCPv6 server responds, the node continues using the link-local address only. For
more information about DHCPv6, see the DHCPv6 Feature Overview Guide.

If an RA is received, this message informs the host how to proceed with the autocon-
figuration process. The prefix from the RA, if received, is concatenated with the link-
level address to form the global unicast IPv6 address.

5. This address is then assigned to the network interface of the host. Additionally, the host
dynamically creates a default route via the link-local address of the advertising router
to provide connectivity via the gateway router to other networks.

If routers are present, the host continues to receive periodic RAs. The host updates its
configuration when there are changes in the RAs.

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 15

 Configuring SLAAC

Configuring SLAAC
There are two halves to the SLAAC configuration process—the client host side and the
router side.

 Client host side of SLAAC—when an AlliedWare Plus device is performing as a client

host, a VLAN interface has not been configured with an IPv6 address but instead learns
an IPv6 address by SLAAC. To configure this mode on an interface, use the command:

awplus(config-if)#ipv6 enable

Note: Different interfaces on a device may have the same link-local address. The device
will automatically generate a link-local address for all interfaces that are using IPv6.
Commands entered to statically configure link-local addresses that match any
automatically generated EU-64 link-local addresses by the device will not be
executed. Enter the show ipv6 interface command to display automatically
generated link-local addresses not shown in the running-config. Automatically
generated link-local addresses contain the last six hexadecimal numbers of the
MAC address for a given interface.

 Router side of SLAAC—when a client host is attached to the router, and the client
hasn’t been configured with an IPv6 address, the router can be configured to send out
the network information in an RA (Router Advertisement) so the client is able to get an
address and communicate on the LAN.

For example, on a router’s VLAN interface which has the client attached, the following
configuration could be used to send the prefix:
awplus(config)#int vlan10
awplus(config-if)#ipv6 address 2001:db8:2::1/64
awplus(config-if)#ipv6 nd ra-interval 10
awplus(config-if)#ipv6 nd prefix 2001:db8:2::/64
awplus(config-if)#no ipv6 nd suppress-ra

Note: AlliedWare Plus supports both the client host and the router side of SLAAC.

Note: From software release 5.4.7-1.x onwards, the command ipv6 address autoconfig
(used to enable SLAAC on an interface) has been deprecated, and is no longer
necessary to configure. SLAAC is now implicitly enabled when any one of the
following commands is configured on an interface:

 ipv6 enable

 ipv6 address

 ipv6 address dhcp

Page 16 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 Configuring SLAAC

Setting up an IPv6 interface using the EUI-64 algorithm

Here is an overview of the steps that occur when a device performs SLAAC using the EUI-
64 algorithm:

1. Generate a 64 bit interface identifier using the EUI-64 algorithm.

The host has to create its own host portion of its IPv6 address. This is commonly known
as the EUI-64 link-local address. It can create a unique address from its MAC address by
using the EUI-64 algorithm, here is how it works:

Table 7: Generate a 64 bit interface identifier

STEP ADDRESS
1. Start with the MAC address 0012.7FEB.6B40
2. Split the MAC address in half 0012:7F EB:6B40
3. Insert FF:EE into the MAC address 0012:7FFF:FEEB:6B40
4. Change the 7th bit from the left to ‘1’ 0212:7FFF:FEEB:6B40

2. Assign a link-local node address.

When IPv6 has been configured on an interface, the device will automatically assign a
link-local address to that interface. Link-local addresses are used as the source address
for packets that stay within the subnet, for example:

 automatic address configuration

 neighbor discovery

 OSPF exchanges etc.

Any packets that are transmitted with a link-local source/destination address are never
routed out of that subnet and are assigned the fe80::/10 prefix, equivalent to the IPv4
address block 169.254.0.0/16.

The link-local address for an interface is created by combining the EUI-64 host address to
the network address FE80::/64.

FE80:0000:0000:0000: + 0212: 7FFF:FEEB:6B40= FE80 : : 0212: 7FFF:FEEB:6B40

3. Send router solicitation messages to all routers on the local link multicast address. If
there is no response, SLAAC ends with only a link-local address generated.

Note: If a periodic RA containing the appropriate information is received at any time,

SLAAC will use it immediately. Also, if an RA is received that reduces the lifetime of
a prefix to zero, SLAAC will immediately deprecate the address (the system will
then cease using it for new connections, but existing ones will continue).

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 17

 Configuring SLAAC

4. Once a prefix is learnt by RA, prepend the prefix to the EUI-64 interface ID, to create
the full global unicast IPv6 address.

2001:639A:1234:5678:: + 0212: 7FFF:FEEB:6B40

2001:639A:1234:5678:0212:7FFF:FEEB:6B40

5. Find default gateway (default routers). On receipt of a valid RA, a host extracts the
source address of the packet and does the following:

 If the address is not already present in the host’s Default Router List, and the
advertisement’s Router Lifetime is non-zero, it creates a new entry in the list and
initializes its invalidation timer value from the advertisement’s Router Lifetime field.

 If the address is already present in the host’s Default Router List as a result of a
previously received advertisement, it resets its invalidation timer to the Router Lifetime
value in the newly received advertisement.

 If the address is already present in the host’s Default Router List and the received
Router Lifetime value is zero, it immediately times-out the entry as specified.

To limit the storage needed for the Default Router List, a host may choose not to store all
of the router addresses discovered via advertisements. However, a host must retain at
least two router addresses and should retain more. Default router selections are made
whenever communication to a destination appears to be failing. Thus, the more routers on
the list, the more likely an alternative working router can be found quickly (without having
to wait for the next advertisement to arrive).

Encryption and authentication in IPv6

IPv4 protocols such as OSPFv2, have authentication incorporated into their own protocol
header.

In IPv6, authentication and encryption are performed by separate IP headers, completely

independent to the enclosed protocol.

AH – Authentication Header – commonly MD5 or SHA

The authentication information for the Authentication Header is calculated using all the
fields of the datagram that do not change in transit.

This header can be used as part of IPSec to authenticate end point to end point packets.
This can be used to protect protocols like OSPFv3, IPv6, BGP, RADIUS, TACACS+, and
RIPng.

Page 18 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 Configuring SLAAC

ESP – Encapsulated Security Payload – commonly 3DES or AES

ESP is used to convey the encrypted data of the IP datagram. The encrypted data is
obtained by applying a specified encryption transform to the data and requires the use of
a key in order to return to plain text.

There are two modes used for ESP:

 Tunnel Mode

 Transport mode

Tunnel Mode, where the entire IP packet is encrypted and/or authenticated. It is then
encapsulated into a new IPv6 packet with a new IPv6 header. ESP Tunnel mode encrypts
the whole IPv6 datagram:

Figure 4: Tunnel mode ESP

Encapsulating IP/IPSec Datagram

New ESP IPv6 TCP/ Upper Upper Layer

IPv6 Header Header UDP Layer (Application) IP Sec
Header Header Headers Data

Layer 2 Frame

Layer 2 New ESP IPv6 TCP/ Upper Upper Layer Layer 2

Header IPv6 Header Header UDP Layer (Application) Footer Layer 2
Header Header Headers Data

In ESP Tunnel mode, the Authentication Header appears as an extension header of the
new IPv6 datagram that encapsulates the original one being tunneled.

Transport Mode, where only the payload of the IPv6 packet is encrypted and/or
authenticated – not the original IPv6 Header. ESP Transport mode encrypts only the
payload (Transport Layer message of the IPv6 datagram):

Figure 5: Transport mode ESP

IP/IPSec Datagram

IP/ ESP TCP/ Upper Upper Layer IP/

IPSec Header UDP Layer (Application) IPSec
Header Header Headers Data

Layer 2 Frame

Layer 2 IP/ ESP TCP/ Upper Upper Layer Layer 2

Header IPSec Header UDP Layer (Application) Footer Layer 2
Header Header Headers Data

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 19

 Configuring SLAAC

The extension headers used to secure the IPv6 communication between two hosts,
Encapsulating Security Payload Header, is ignored by the intermediary network devices
while forwarding traffic. This Extension Header is relevant only to the source and
destination of the IPv6 packet.

All information following the ESP Header is encrypted and not available for inspection by
an intermediary device.

The Flow label

The Flow label is a 20 bit field in the IPv6 packet header which provides an efficient way
for packet marking, flow identification, and flow state lookup.

This field can be used by a source to label a set of packets belonging to the same flow.
The device must process the packets in the same flow in the same manner. When a flow-
label aware router receives the first packet of a new flow, it sets up a new flow entry using
the information carried by the IPv6 header, Routing header, and Hop-by-Hop extension
headers, and stores the result.

It then uses the flow entry to route all other packets belonging to the same flow – which
will have the same source address and the same Flow Label.

IPv6 routing
Routing in IPv6 is almost identical to IPv4 routing under CIDR, except that the addresses
are 128-bit IPv6 addresses instead of 32-bit IPv4 addresses.

Routing RIP is a simple distance vector protocol that defines networks based on how many hops
Information they are from the router. When a network is more than 15 hops away (one hop is one link),
Protocol
it is not included in the routing table.
(RIPv6)

RIPv6, also referred to as RIPng (for “next generation”) is similar to RIPv2. Extensions to
RIPv2 to support IPv6 are:

 the address field of a routing entry is expanded to 128 bits to allow IPv6 prefixes

 the 32-bit RIPv2 subnet mask field is replaced by an 8-bit prefix length field

 authentication is removed in RIPv6

 the size of a routing packet is no longer arbitrarily limited

 RIPv6 specifies the next hop instead of simply allowing the recipient of the update to
set the next hop to the sender of the update.

Page 20 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 Configuring SLAAC

In RIPv6, each router uses a routing table to keep track of every destination that is
reachable throughout the system. Each entry in the routing table contains:

 the IPv6 prefix of the destination

 a metric, which represents the total cost of getting a packet from the router to that
destination

 the IPv6 address of the next router along the path to the destination

 a flag to indicate that information about the route has changed recently

 various timers associated with the route.

Configuring IPv6 routing

IPv6 Layer 3 forwarding is disabled by default. To enable IPv6 forwarding, use the ipv6
forwarding command.

To display information about IPv6 settings, use the show ipv6 interface brief command.

Because AlliedWare Plus implements IPv6 as a dual protocol stack, implementing IPv6
does not affect IPv4 functionality.

IPv6 interface states

From AlliedWare Plus version 5.4.8 onwards, the show ipv6 interface and show
interface commands also return information about the configuration and state of
connected IPv6 addresses.

What are the IPv6 address states?

The IPv6 address states are: tentative, DAD failed, preferred, and deprecated.

 Tentative - an address in the process of being verified through duplicate address

detection.

 DAD failed - duplicate address detection found that the address is not unique and
cannot be used on this interface.

 Preferred - an address that has been verified as unique. Communication with this
address is unrestricted.

 Deprecated - if the preferred lifetime of a preferred address times out the address goes
into the deprecated state. Communication to/from a deprecated address is valid but
discouraged.

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 21

 Configuring SLAAC

You can see interface state information in the show command output

The command show ipv6 interface output includes the:

 State field heading

 State of each address - the star symbol ‘*’ indicates an auto-configured address

awplus#show ipv6 interface

* = Autoconfigured Address
Interface IPv6-Address State Status Protocol
lo unassigned N/A admin up running
vlan1 2001:4::124:3/64 tentative admin up running
2001:dead:beef:0:230:abff:fef3:42b4/64 deprecated*
fe80::222:b0ff:fede:803c/64 DAD failed
2001:dead:beef:0:21a:ebff:fe94:27a7/64 preferred *
fe80::21a:ebff:fe94:27a7/64 preferred

The command show interface output includes the:

 State of each IPv6 address - the star symbol '*' indicates an auto-configured address.

awplus#show interface vlan1

Interface vlan1
Scope: both
Link is UP, administrative state is UP
Hardware is VLAN, address is 0030.abf3.42b4
IPv6 address 2001:4::124:3/64 tentative
IPv6 address 2001:dead:beef:0:230:abff:fef3:42b4/64 deprecated*
IPv6 address fe80::222:b0ff:fede:803c/64 DAD failed
IPv6 address 2001:dead:beef:0:21a:ebff:fe94:27a7/64 *
IPv6 address fe80::21a:ebff:fe94:27a7/64
index 301 metric 1 mtu 1500
arp ageing timeout 300
<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>
SNMP link-status traps: Disabled
Router Advertisement is disabled
Router Advertisement default routes are accepted
Router Advertisement prefix info is accepted
input packets 0, bytes 0, dropped 0, multicast packets 0
output packets 0, bytes 0, multicast packets 0, broadcast packets 0
Time since last state change: 0 days 00:40:07

Interface state information is useful for network engineers

State information is useful because only preferred or deprecated addresses are valid for
sending and receiving.

IPv6 addresses can be configured manually or automatically. Auto-configured address are

temporary and should not be treated in the same way as permanent addresses because
they may change. So, it is useful to be able to easily tell if an address is auto-configured
as well as the IPv6 state of the address.

Page 22 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 IPv6 RA Guard

Expanding the output of the show ipv6 interface and show interface commands to
include IPv6 states and distinguishing between permanent and non-permanent
addresses, enables network engineers to learn information about administrative, link, and
ipv6 state, all in one place.

Integration of IPv4 and IPv6

IPv6 has been designed in such a way that a smooth transition from IPv4 is possible. The
most effective way to ensure this is to use a dual IP stack. A node configured as a dual
stack system has both a 128-bit IPv6 address and a 32-bit IPv4 address, and so can
communicate with nodes running IPv4 and those running IPv6.

IPv6 RA Guard
Router Advertisements (RA) and Router Redirects are key to the Network Discovery
Protocol (NDP) which is used to manage IPv6 networks. RA messages advertise a router’s
presence and specify network parameters that are used by hosts as part of address auto-
configuration and next hop routers for particular destinations.

Subverting this process can severely disrupt the operation of an IPv6 network. RA Guard
is a feature that protects the RA process from being subverted.

RA Guard:

 is positioned in between routers and hosts, and acts as an authorisation proxy.

 operates on all AlliedWare Plus Layer 3 switches, including stacked environments.

 drops bad or Rogue RAs before they reach hosts.

Rogue RAs
A rogue RA is an RA that contains invalid information that could cause unwanted changes
in the network configuration. These could be generated unintentionally through
misconfiguration or maliciously by someone wanting to disrupt or gain access to the
network.

A switch can be configured to be selective about the RA and redirect packets it will
accept. Ports are configured to trust or not trust the RA and redirect packets they receive.

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 23

 IPv6 RA Guard

RA Guard on AlliedWare Plus switches

Ports can be configured to be RA untrusted ports, i.e. RA Guard is applied to ports on a
per-interface basis and can be enabled on the following:

 Standalone ports.

 Individual ports in a dynamic (LACP) aggregator, but is not supported on the dynamic
aggregator itself.

 A static aggregator, but is not supported on individual ports in a static aggregator.

RA Guard is enabled on an interface as follows:

awplus#conf t
awplus(config)#int port1.0.2
awplus(config-if)#ipv6 nd raguard

Note: This feature is disabled by default on IPv6 enabled interfaces.

RA Guard classifiers
The actual security enforcement of RA Guard is handled through hardware classifiers,
which are dynamically added when a port is marked as trusted or untrusted.

RA Guard blocks RAs and router redirects on untrusted ports with filters for ICMPv6 type
134 and 137.

Enabling IPv6 RA Guard

IPv6 RA Guard is disabled by default. To enable IPv6 RA Guard on a port to block RAs
from an untrusted host, use the ipv6 nd raguard command. Disable IPv6 RA Guard to
allow RAs on a port using the no ipv6 nd raguard command.

Page 24 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Proxy (AR-Series only)

IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Proxy (AR-Series only)

IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ND) Proxy is often used as a method to provide mobile IPv6
connectivity via 3GPP networks. This technology also provides IPv6 over Ethernet
(IPv6oE) Internet connectivity to some service providers.This feature implementation is
limited to the components of Neighbor Discovery Proxy RFC 4389. Therefore, not all
capabilities are described within the RFC are supported in AlliedWare Plus.

The IPv6 ND proxy feature is supported in AR-Series AR2010V, 2050V, AR3050S and
AR4050S models from version 5.4.6-2 onwards. This feature allows for IPv6 addressing
information to be dynamically learned via an external Ethernet WAN interface. For
example, via SLAAC or alternatively via DHCPv6 from an ISP router. This address
information is assigned to an internal LAN interface, instead of being used on the WAN.

WAN assignment via SLAAC with IPv6 ND proxy

In order for this to work, IPv6 NS/NA and RS/RA messages need to be proxied and
forwarded (bridged) between specific WAN and VLAN interfaces.

To proxy these messages, use the interface configuration command:

ipv6 nd proxy interface <interface-name> ra-rs.

This command enables the ND proxy that forwards Neighbor Solicitations (NS) and
Neighbor Advertisements (NA) between the two interfaces that have been configured.

If the ra-rs option is:

 specified, RA and RS as well as NA and NS is proxied.

 not specified, the default action proxies NA and NS only.

More specifically, this command enables the forwarding of NS between the related
internal (VLAN) to external (Ethernet WAN) interfaces. Then, related forwarding and
matching of NA that comes back in reply. This is required to support IPv6 Duplicate
Address Detection (DAD).

Similarly, RSs and RAs, and periodic RAs can be optionally and automatically forwarded
between WAN to VLAN interfaces as well. This allows the LAN hosts to automatically
configure their own globally scoped IPv6 addresses using SLAAC as well.

On receipt of an RA packet via (eth) WAN from an IPv6 service provider router, the router
assigns the address to a specified internal VLAN interface that is associated with the WAN
interface. This is instead of using it to dynamically assign an IPv6 address to the receiving
WAN interface via SLAAC. The internal VLAN interface can be considered to be tethered
to the external WAN. Only the IPv6 link-local address is used on the WAN, with the
globally scoped IPv6 addressing instead used on the internal VLAN interface only.

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 25

 IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Proxy (AR-Series only)

This is achieved using the command ipv6 address autoconfig eth1 configured on the
VLAN interface allowing the VLAN ipv6 address to be acquired via SLAAC, and assigned
based on RA received via the eth WAN.

Additionally, a default route is automatically and dynamically created, with the nexthop
IPv6 address, based on the source IPv6 address of the packets from the device
advertising the RAs.

Optionally, DHCPv6 can also be used to learn DNS server information from the WAN and
distribute it to clients, via the LAN.

 If DHCv6 server components on the LAN are configured, (such as ipv6 dhcp server,
no ipv6 nd suppress-ra and, ipv6 nd other-config-flag) then the router sends RAs to
the LAN interface with the “other config” flag set. This prompts the LAN hosts to
request other configuration via DHCPv6. The router advertises itself to the LAN as the
DNS server, via DHCPv6. The presence of the “other config” flag within an RA,
indicates to the host that there is additional configuration available (DNS, SNTP) via a
stateless DHCPv6 client request.

 The DHCPv6 server advertises an interface address for DNS, SNTP servers. This allows
the AlliedWare Plus router, operating as a DHCPv6 server, to advertise its own interface
address to clients as a DNS (with DNS forwarding configured) or optionally SNTP
server. This is useful in the case where the IPv6 address of the interface is dynamic and
therefore not known beforehand.

The following diagrams show all components of the feature set “IPv6oE WAN assignment
via SLAAC with ND proxy”:

Figure 6: IPv6oE WAN assignment via SLAAC with ND proxy

Page 26 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Proxy (AR-Series only)

Figure 7: IPv6oE WAN assignment via SLAAC with ND proxy (Continued)

The following configuration shows how to configure WAN assignment via SLAAC with ND
proxy:

!
ipv6 dhcp pool IPoE-vlan1
dns-server interface vlan1
!
!
#Configure
interface eth1
ipv6 enable
no ipv6 nd accept-ra-pinfo
ipv6 nd proxy interface vlan1 ra-rs
!
interface vlan1
ipv6 address autoconfig eth1
no ipv6 nd suppress-ra
ipv6 nd other-config-flag
ipv6 nd proxy interface eth1 ra-rs
ipv6 dhcp server IPoE-vlan1
!
ipv6 forwarding
!
ip dns forwarding
ip dns forwarding source-interface vlan1
!

Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6) | Page 27

 IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Proxy (AR-Series only)

WAN assignment via DHCP prefix delegation - without IPv6 ND

proxy
The following shows how to configure DHCPv6 prefix delegation as an alternative for
WAN address assignment, instead of using SLAAC plus IPv6 ND proxy. In this example,
ND proxy is not required.

Eth WAN is optionally configured as a DHCPv6 prefix delegation client interface, and it is
also configured to create an IPv6 default route dynamically, based on the IPv6 source IP
address DHCPv6 address of the DHCPv6 server.

 Since the default route is configured based on DHCPv6 server messages, the Eth WAN
is configured with the non-default option to ensure the default IPv6 route is not installed
into the routing table based on RAs received via the Eth WAN. Only the link-local
address is assigned to the Eth WAN.

 The prefix advertised from the DHCPv6 server is stored within the configured DHCPv6
address pool, this prefix information is used to build the globally scoped IPv6 address
allocated to the VLAN.

 Additionally, the DHCPv6 server is optionally configured to provide stateful IPv6

addressing to clients located on the VLAN. This is once the VLAN RA suppression is
turned off, and RAs are sent with the O flag set, to inform clients on the LAN of the
availability of stateful address assignment via DHCPv6.

 Optionally, the command no ipv6 nd prefix auto-advertise can be configured. This

command is used in conjunction with the command no ipv6 nd supress-ra to disable
the advertisement of link prefixes. A specific prefix can then instead be selectively
advertised. For example, via DHCPv6, if required. The default behavior is to
automatically advertise on link address prefixes.

The following configuration shows how to configure DHCPv6 prefix delegation client

!
ipv6 dhcp pool IPOE-VLAN
dns server vlan1
!
interface eth1
ipv6 enable
ipv6 dhcp client pd WANPREFIX default-route-to-server
no ipv6 nd accept-ra-default-routes
!
interface vlan1
ipv6 address WANPREFIX ::bbbb/64
no ipv6 nd suppress-ra
# no ipv6 nd prefix auto-advertise
ipv6 nd other-config-flag
ipv6 dhcp server IPOE-VLAN
!

Page 28 | Internet Protocol v6 (IPv6)

 The following diagram shows all components of the feature set DHCPv6 server
configuration used to advertise the DHCPv6 prefix towards the DHCPv6 client:

Figure 8: WAN assignment DHCPv6 prefix delegation

The DHCPv6 server configuration is as follows:

!
hostname DHCPv6SERVER
!
ipv6 local pool test 2001:db8::/60 64
!
!
ipv6 dhcp pool poolname
prefix-delegation pool test
!
interface eth1
ipv6 address 2001:db8::1/64
ipv6 dhcp server poolname
!
ipv6 forwarding
!

For more information about DHCPv6, see the DHCP for IPv6 Feature Overview and
Configuration Guide.

C613-22006-00 REV C

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