Unit-2:

Next Generation IP
(IPv6)

Presented By : Mr. Nikhil. G. Khodave

Lecturer, Department of Computer Engineering,(Diploma).
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2.1 IPv6 Addressing

 The address depletion of IPv4 and other shortcoming of IPv4 prompted a new version
of IP.

 The new version ,which called Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) or IP New
Generation (IPng)

 The following are the main changes in IPv6 protocol.

1. Larger address space than IPv4

2. Better Header Format
3. New type of options
4. Allowance for extension
5. Support for resource allocation
6. Support for more security
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2.1.1 Address Representation

 A computer can normally stores address in binary form, but it is clear that 128 bits
cannot be easily handled by humans.

 The following are the two of several notations used by humans to handle IPv6
address.

1. Binary Notation

2. Colon Hexadecimal Notation (Colon hex)

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1. Binary Notation

 Binary notation is used when the addresses are stored in computer.

 Binary representation (128 bits) as follows,

1111111011110110 . . . . . . . 1111111100000000

2. Colon Hexadecimal Notation (Colon hex)

 The colon hexadecimal notation divides the address into 8 sections, each section made
up of 4 hexadecimal digits separated by colon.

 Colon Hex Representation as follows,

FEF6:BA98:7654:3210:ADEF:BBFF:2922:FF00
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2. Colon Hexadecimal Notation (Colon hex)

a) Abbreviations
 Although IPv6 notation in colon hexadecimal notation, still it is very long, many of
digits are zero.

 In this case we abbreviate the IPv6 address.

1. Leading zeros of a section can be omitted.

For example, using this abbreviation, 0074 can be written as 74, 000F can be F, and 0000
can be 0.

2. Zero Compression
It can be applied to colon hex notation, if there are consecutive sections consists of zeros
only. We can remove all zeros and replace them with double semicolon.

For Example, FEDC:0:0:0:0:BBFF:0:FFFF FEDC::BBFF:0:FFFF 5

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2. Colon Hexadecimal Notation (Colon hex)

b) Mixed Notation
 Sometimes it is seen a mixed representation of IPv6 i.e. colon hex and dotted decimal
notation.

 We use colon hex notation for left most six sections and 4 byte dotted decimal notation
instead of two right most sections.

 For example, : :130.24.24.18

c) CIDR Notation
 IPv6 allows CIDR notation. The following shows how we can define a prefix of 60 bits
using CIDR.

 For example, FDEC::BBFF:0:FFFF/60

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2.1.2 Address Space

 The size of IPv6 is 128 bits, so it has 128 bits to represent an IP address.

 As there are 128 bits, it has 2128 addresses in its address space.

 This address space is 4 times larger than IPv4 address space, so there is no address
depletion.

 We assume that only 1/64 (almost 2%) of addresses in space can be assigned to
people on planet.

 Each person have 288 addresses to use, if we consider the population of entire world.

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2.1.2 Address Space

a) Three types of Addresses
 In IPv6, a destination address can belong to one of three categoeris,

1. Unicast Address
2. Anycast Address
3. Multicast Address

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1. Unicast Address
 A unicast address defines a single a interface (computer or router).

 The packet sent to a unicast address will be routed to the intended recipient.

2. Anycast Address

 An anycast address is a group of computers that all share a single address.

 A packet with anycast address is delivered to only one member of the group i.e. most
reachable one.

 E.g. When there are several servers that can respond to any inquiry. The request is
sent to one that is most reachable.

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3. Multicast Address
 A multicast address is also defines a group of computers, however there is difference
between multicast and anycast address.

 As in anycast only one copy of packet is sent to one of the member of group.

 In multicasting each member of group receives a copy of packet.

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2.1.3 Address Space Allocation

 The address space of IPv6 is divided into several blocks of varying size and each block
is allocated for special purposes.

 Most of the blocks are still unassigned and set aside for future use.

 Following table shows only assigned blocks and last column shows the fraction each
block occupies in whole address space.

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a. Global Unicast Address

 The block in IPv6 address space that is used for (One to one ) communication between
two hosts in the Internet is called as Global Unicast Address Block.

 CIDR for block is 2000::/3, which means 3 leftmost bits are same for all addresses in
this block which are 001.

 The size of this block is 2125 bits, which is more than enough for Internet expansion in
future.

 Address of this block is divided into three parts,

1. Global routing prefix (n bits)
2. Subnet identifier (m bits)
3. Interface identifier (q bits)
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a. Global Unicast Address

 The following figure shows recommended length for each part.

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 n bits
 The global routing prefix is used to route the packet through the internet to
organization site.

 Out of 48 global routing prefix bits, 3 bits are fixed (001) so, rest 45 bits can be used
to define sites (i.e. Organization or an ISP)

 The global routers route the packet in Internet to its destination site based on the
value of ‘n’.

 m bits

 Next m bits (16 bits) define a subnet in organization.

 This means that an organization can have upto 216=65535 subnets are more than
enough
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 q bits
 The last q bits (64 bits) define the interface identifier.

 The interface identifier is similar to host id in IPv4 addressing.

 The host identifier actually defines the interface not the host. If the host is moved form
one network to another network IP address need to be changed.

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2.1.4 Auto-configuration
 One of the interesting feature of IPv6 is auto-configuration of hosts.

 The host and routers are manually configured by the network manager.

 Similar to IPv4, IPv6 is also uses DHCP protocol to allocate an IPv6 address to a host
but host can also configure itself.

 When a host in IPv6 joins a network, it can configure itself using following process,

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2.1.4 Auto-configuration
a. The host first creates a link local address for itself. This can be done by taking the 10
bits of link layer prefix (1111 1110 10), adding 54 zeros, adding 64 bit
interface identifier which any host knows how generate it from its interface card. The
result is 128 bit link local address.

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2.1.4 Auto-configuration
b. After generating link local address, the ost then test to see if this link local address is
unique and not used by other hosts. Since 64 bit interface identifier is unique, the link
local address generated is unique with a high probability.

However, to be sure, the host sends a neighbor solicitation message and waits for a
neighbor advertisement message.

If any host is in subnet is using this link local address the process fails and host cannot
auto-configure itself, It need to take help of DHCP for this purpose.

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2.1.4 Auto-configuration
c. If uniqueness of link address is passed, the host store this address as its link local
address for private communication, but still needs global unicast address.

The host then sends a router solicitation message to local router. If there is a router
running on network, the host receives router advertisement message.

This message includes the global unicast prefix and the subnet prefix that the host need
to add to its interface identifier to generate global unicast address.

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2.1.5 Renumbering
 To allow sites to change the service provider, renumbering of the address prefix(n) was
built into IPv6 addressing.

 Each organization or site has given a prefix by Internet service provider(ISP) to which
it is connected.

 If site changes the service provider, the address prefix need to be changed.

 A router to which the site is connected can advertise a new prefix and let the site use
the old prefix for a short time before disabling it.

 In other words, during transition a site has two addresses.

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2.2 IPv6 Protocol

 The change of IPv6 address size requires the change in IP datagram format.

 The following shows other changes implemented in the protocol in addition to

changing address size and format.

1. Better Header Format

 IPv6 uses new header format in which options are separated from base header and
inserted when needed between base header and data. This simplifies and speed up
routing process.

2. New Options
 IPv6 has new options to allow for additional functionalities.

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3. Allowance for extension

 IPv6 is designed to allow the extension of new protocols if required by new technologies
and applications.

4. Support for resource allocation

 In IPv6, the type of service field has been removed, but two new fields traffic class and
flow label have been added to enable the source to request special handling of packet.

5. Support for more security

 The encryption and authentication options in IPv6 provide confidentiality and integrity of
packet.
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2.2.1 Packet Format

 The IPv6 packet shown in following figure. Each packet is composed of a base
header and payload.

 The base header occupies 40 bytes whereas payload can be up to 65,535 of

information.

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2.2.1 Packet Format

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 Let understand various fields of base header,

1. Version of Protocol
 The 4 bit field defines version of IP protocol. For IPv6 its value is 6.

2. Traffic Class

 The 8 bit field traffic class is used to distinguish different payloads with different
delivery requirements.

 It replaces type of service field (TOS) field of IPv4 header.

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3. Flow Label

 The flow label is 20 bit field that is designed to provide special handling for a particular
flow of data.

 A flow is a sequence of packets that share same characteristics, travelling same path,
using same resources and have same kind of security.

4. Payload Length

 This 16 bit payload length field defines length of IP datagram excluding base header.

 Note that IPv4 has two fields related to the length 1) Header length 2) Total Length

 In IPv6, the length of base header is fixed (40 bytes) only length of payload need to
be defined.
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5. Next Header

 The next header 8 bit field defines the type of first extension header or the type of
data that follows the base header in datagram.

 This field is similar to protocol field in IPv4 datagram.

6. Hop Limit
 The 8 bit hop limit field serves same purpose as the TTL in IPv4.

7. Source & Destination Addresses

 The source addresses field defines IPv6 (128 bit) address of original source of
datagram.

 The destination field defines IPv6 (128 bit) address of destination host. 27
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8. Payload
 The payload in IPv6 means a combination of zero or more extension headers(Options)
followed by data from other protocols (TCP,UDP).

 The payload can have as many extension headers as required by situation.

 Each next extension header value defines type of next header.

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2.2.2 Extension Headers

 The IPv6 packet made up of a base header and some extension headers.

 The length of base header is fixed to 40 bytes. However to give more functionality to
IP datagram, the base header can be followed by up to 6 extension headers.

 Many of these headers are options in IPv4. Six types of extension headers have been
defined. These are as follows.

1. Hop by hop
2. Destination
3. Source Routing
4. Fragmentation
5. Authentication
6. Encrypted Security Payload
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1. Hop by hop
 The hop by hop option used when the source need to pass information to routers
visited by the datagram.

 Router must be informed about certain management, debugging or control functions.

 There are 3 hop-by-hop options have been defined,

i) Pad1: This option is 1 byte long and is designed for alignment purpose. Some
options to start at specific bit of 32 bit word. If an option fall short of this
requirement by exactly one byte then Pad1 is added.

ii) PadN: PadN is similar in concept to pad1. The difference is that PadN is used
when 2 or more bytes are need for alignment.

iii) Jumbo Payload: The length of payload in IP datagram can be a maximum of

65,535 bytes. However, if for any reason a longer payload is required, we can 30
use jumbo payload option to define longer length.
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2. Destination option
 The destination option used when the source need to pass information to destination
only.

 Intermediate routers are not allowed/ permitted to access this information.

3. Source Routing
 The source routing header combines the concept of the strict source route and loose
source route option of IPv4

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4. Fragmentation

 The concept of fragmentation in IPv6 is same as that of IPv4.

 However, the place where fragmentation occurs differ. In IPv4 the source or router
performs fragmentation if size of datagram is larger than MTU of network.

 In IPv6 only source can perform fragmentation. In this case source uses Path Discovery
Technique to find the smallest MTU supported by any network on the path.

 The source then fragments using this knowledge.

 If source does not use path discovery technique, it fragments data to a size of 1280 bytes
or smaller.

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5. Authentication

 The authentication extension header has dual purpose, It validates the sender of message
and ensures integrity of data.

 This field needed, so receiver can be sure that a message is from the genuine sender and
not from imposter.

 This also needed to check tat data is not altered by some hackers.

6. Encrypted Security Payload

 The encrypted security payload(ESP) is an extension that provides confidentiality and

guards against eavesdropping.

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2.3 Transition from IPv4 to IPv6

 Although we have new version of IP protocol, how we can make transition from IPv4
to IPv6.

 One way is every host or router should stop using old version and start using new
version. However, this is not practically possible, because of huge no. of systems in
Internet.

 The transition must be smooth and must avoid problems between IPv4 and IPv6.

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2.3.1 Strategies for Transition from IPv4 to IPv6

 Three strategies have been devised for transition,

1. Dual Stack

2. Tunneling

3. Header Translation

 One or all these three strategies can be implemented during transition.

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1. Dual Stack
 It is recommended that all hosts, before migrating completely to version6 have a
dual stack of protocols during the transition.

 In other words, a station must runt IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously until all internet
uses IPv6.

 Following figure shows layout of dual stack configuration,

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1. Dual Stack
 To determine which version to use when sending a packet to destination, the source
host queries the DNS. If DNS returns a IPv4 address the source host sends IPv4
Packet.

 If DNS returns IPv6 address then source host sends IPv6 packet.

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2. Tunneling
 Tunneling is strategy used when two computers using IPv6 and want to
communicate with each other and packet must pass through a region that uses IPv4.

 To pass through this ,the packet must have an IPv4 address, so IPv6 packet is
encapsulated in the IPv4 packet when it enters the region and it leaves its capsule
when it exit the region.

 It seems as if the IPv6 packet enters a tunnel at one end and emerges at other end.

 To make it clear that IPv4 packet is carrying IPv6 packet as data ,the protocol value
is set to 41.

 The following figure shows tunneling,

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2. Tunneling

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3. Header Translation
 Header translation is necessary when the majority of the Internet has moved to IPv6
but some systems still use IPv4.

 The sender want to use IPv6, but the receiver does not understand IPv6.

 Tunneling does not work in this situation because the packet must be in the IPv4
format to be understood by receiver.

 In this case, the header format must be totally changed through header translation.

 That is, the header of IPv6 is converted to an IPv4 header.

 Following figure shows concept of header translation.

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3. Header Translation

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Thank You !