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11.3.5 IPv6 Facts

Internet connected devices have become pervasive, leading to a massive increase in the
number of devices that connect to the internet. The 32-bit IPv4 address system has
approximately 4.3 billion possible addresses and many of those are reserved.

Since every device that connects to the internet is assigned an IP address, the addresses
available under the IPv4 addressing standard have been exhausted. To help remedy this
situation, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) developed the IPv6 standard in the mid
1990's.

This lesson covers the following topics:

• IPv6 format
• IPv6 components
• IPv6 address types

IPv6 Format
The following list describes the format of an IPv6 address:

• An IPv6 address is a 128-bit address made up of 8 16-bit blocks.

• Each block is separated by a colon.
• Each block is comprised of 4 hexadecimal values between 0000 and FFFF. Each block
represents 16 bits of data (FFFF = 1111 1111 1111 1111).
• There is approximately 2128 (340 undecillion or 340 trillion trillion) available IPv6
addresses. The speci�c number of IPv6 addresses is
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456

Because IPv6 addresses are so long, there are rules you can use to simplify an address. These
rules are:

• Leading zeros can be omitted in each section. For example, the quartet 0284 could
also be written as 284.
• An address with consecutive zeros can be expressed more concisely by substituting a
double colon for the group of zeros. For example:
◦ FEC0:0000:0000:0000:78CD:1283:F398:23AB
◦ FEC0::78CD:1283:F398:23AB (concise form)

Removing the zeros and simplifying the address is also known as address
 compression.

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• You can use address compression only once per address. For example,
FEC2:0000:0000:0000:78CA:0000:0000:23AB can be abbreviated as:
◦ FEC2::78CA:0:0:23AB
or
◦ FEC2:0:0:0:78CA::23AB
but not
◦ FEC2::78CA::23AB

IPv6 Components
An IPv6 address is divided into two equal parts. The left side is the pre�x and the right side is
the interface ID. The pre�x is comparable to the network ID in a IPv4 address and the
interface ID is comparable to the host ID.

IPv6
Description
Components

The �rst 64-bits make up the pre�x.

• The pre�x can be divided into various parts that identify things such as
geographic region, the ISP, the network, and the subnet.
• The �rst 48-bits of the address de�ne the site pre�x. The site pre�x de�nes
the location of the address and is assigned by the local ISP.
• The next 16-bits make up the subnet ID. This de�nes the network the device
is connected to.
• CIDR notation can be used to indicate the pre�x-length. As with an IPv4
Pre�x address, this shows which portion of the address used for the pre�x (network
address).
◦ To indicate the pre�x length, add a slash (/) followed by the pre�x
length.
◦ Full quartets with trailing 0s in the pre�x address can be omitted (e.g.,
2001:0DB8:4898:DAFC::/64).
• Because addresses can be allocated based on physical location, the pre�x
generally identi�es the location of the host. The pre�x is often referred to as
the global routing pre�x.

The last 64-bits in the address is the interface ID. This is a unique identi�er for each
device, similar to a MAC address.

• Addresses are assigned to interfaces (network connections), not to the host.

Interface ID Technically, the interface ID is not a host address, but is often referred to as
the host address.
• Interface IDs must be unique within a subnet, but the same interface ID can
exist on multiple subnets.

To ensure that the interface ID is unique for every host on the network, IPv6 uses the

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Extended Unique Identi�er 64 (EUI-64) format. Following are some details of the
EUI-64 format:

• Since each device is hard-wired with a unique 48-bit hardware address called
the MAC address, the EUI-64 format uses it to generate a unique interface ID.
• The EUI-64 format:
1. Converts the MAC address to binary.
2. Flips the 7th bit from the left (from 1 to 0 or 0 to 1). This bit is called the
universal/local (U/L) bit.
3. Inserts the 16-bit hexadecimal value FFFE in the middle.

For example, the address for a host with a MAC address of 20-0C-
FB-BC-A0-07 would start with the following EUI-64 interface ID:
200C:FBFF:FEBC:A007

The interface ID can also be generated using a special algorithm that generates a
completely randomized ID. This guarantees that each device will have a unique ID.

IPv6 Address Types

Every device on the network must be assigned an IP address. With IPv6, each device can have
multiple addresses. The following table describes the di�erent types of IPv6 addresses:

Address
Description
Type

Unicast addresses are assigned to a single interface for the purpose of allowing one host to
send and receive data. Packets sent to a unicast address are delivered to the interface
Unicast identi�ed by that address.

There are three types of unicast IPv6 addresses:

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Link-local addresses (also known as local link addresses) are valid only on the
current subnet. These addresses are similar to an APIPA IPv4 address.
Details include:

• Link-local addresses have an FE80::/10 pre�x. This includes any

address beginning with FE8, FE9, FEA, or FEB.
• All nodes must have at least one link-local address, although each
Link- interface can have multiple addresses.
local • Link-local addresses are used for automatic address con�guration,
for neighbor discovery, or for subnets that have no routers.

Do not use link-local IPv6 addressing on routed networks.

 Routers do not forward packets destined for link-local
addresses to other subnets.

Unique local addresses are private addresses used for communication

within a site or between a limited number of sites. They are commonly used
for network communications that do not cross a public network; they are
the equivalent of private addressing in IPv4. Details include the following:

• Because unique local addresses are not registered with IANA, they
cannot be used on a public network without address translation.
• Unique local addresses have an FC00::/7 pre�x and include
addresses beginning with FC or FD.
• Following the pre�x, the next 40 bits are used for the Global ID. The
Global ID is generated randomly, creating a high probability of
Unique
uniqueness on the entire internet.
local
• Following the Global ID, the remaining 16 bits in the pre�x are used
for subnet information.
• Unique local addresses are likely to be globally unique, but they are
not globally routable. Unique local addresses can be routed
between sites by a local ISP.

The process for designing a network addressing scheme when using unique
local addresses is similar to that used for global unicast addresses. The key
di�erence is how the pre�x is de�ned. Because the address range is not
registered, a global routing pre�x does not have to be requested from an
ISP. Instead, each organization de�nes its own pre�x.

Global unicast addresses are assigned to individual interfaces that are

globally unique. All IPv6 addresses that aren't speci�cally reserved for other
purposes are de�ned as global unicast addresses.
Global
unicast The global routing pre�x assigned to an organization by an ISP is typically 48
bits long (/48), but it could be as short as /32 or as long as /56, depending on
the ISP. All subnet IDs within the same organization must begin with the
same global routing pre�x; they must be uniquely identi�ed using the value

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in the subnet �eld.

Using this addressing scheme allows organizations to de�ne a large number

(216) of IPv6 subnets. When designing an IPv6 network, you can de�ne the
following separate IPv6 subnets:

• Network segments separated by routers

• VLANs
• Point-to-point WAN links

Multicast addresses represent a dynamic group of hosts. Packets sent to a multicast

address are sent to all interfaces identi�ed by that address. If you use di�erent multicast
addresses for di�erent functions, only the devices that need to participate in a particular
function will respond to the multicast; devices that do not need to participate in the
function will ignore the multicast. Details include:

• All multicast addresses have an FF00::/8 pre�x.

• Multicast addresses that are restricted to the local link have an FF02::/16 pre�x.
Packets starting with FF02 are not forwarded by routers.
• Multicast addresses with an FF01::/16 pre�x are restricted to a single node.

Multicast The following are well-known multicast addresses:

• FF02::1 is for all nodes on the local link. This is the equivalent of the IPv4 subnet
broadcast address. FF01::1 is for all interfaces on a node.
• FF02::2 is for all routers on the local link. FF01::2 is for all routers on node-local.
• FF02::1:2 is for all DHCP servers or DHCP relay agents on the local link. DHCP relay
agents forward these packets to other subnets.

There are no broadcast addresses in IPv6. IPv6 uses multicast addresses

 instead of broadcast addresses.

The anycast address is a unicast address that is assigned to more than one interface,
typically belonging to di�erent hosts. An anycast packet is routed to the nearest interface
having that address (based on routing protocol decisions). Details include:

• An anycast address is the same as a unicast address. Assigning the same unicast
address to more than one interface makes it an anycast address.
Anycast
• A anycast address can be a link-local, unique local, or global unicast address.
• When assigning an anycast address to an interface, it must be explicitly identi�ed
as an anycast address to distinguish it from a unicast address.
• You can use anycast addresses to locate the nearest server of a speci�c type. For
example, the nearest DNS or network time server.

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The local loopback address for the local host is 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 (also identi�ed as ::1 or
Loopback ::1/128). The local loopback address is not assigned to an interface. It can verify that the
TCP/IP protocol stack is properly installed on the host.

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