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Network Working Group R. Hinden Request for Comments: 1897 Ipsilon Networks Category: Experimental J. Postel

                                                                   ISI
                                                          January 1996

                  IPv6 Testing Address Allocation

Status of this Memo

 This document specifies an Experimental protocol for the Internet
 community.  This memo does not specify an Internet standard of any
 kind.  Discussion and suggestions for improvement are requested.
 Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

1.0 Introduction

 This document describes an allocation plan for IPv6 addresses to be
 used in testing IPv6 prototype software.  These addresses are
 temporary and will be reclaimed in the future.  Any IPv6 system using
 these addresses will have to renumber at some time in the future.
 These addresses will not to be routable in the Internet other than
 for IPv6 testing.

 The addresses described in this document are consistent with the IPv6
 Addressing Architecture [ARCH].  They may be assigned to nodes
 manually, with IPv6 Auto Address Allocation [AUTO], or with DHCP for
 IPv6 [DHCPv6].

Hinden & Postel Experimental [Page 1]  RFC 1897 IPv6 Testing Address Allocation January 1996

2.0 Address Format

 The address format for the IPv6 test address is consistent with the
 provider-based unicast address allocation [PRVD] which is as follows:

 | 3 |  5 bits  |  16 bits | 8 |   24 bits  | 8 |    64 bits     |
 +---+----------+----------+---+------------+---+----------------+
 |010|RegistryID|ProviderID|RES|SubscriberID|RES|Intra-Subscriber|
 +---+----------+----------+---+------------+---+----------------+

 The specific allocation of each field of the test address format is
 as follows:

 | 3 |  5 bits  |  16 bits | 8 |   24 bits  | 8 | 16 bits|48 bits|
 +---+----------+----------+---+------------+---+--------+-------+
 |   |          |Autonomous|   |    IPv4    |   | Subnet | Intf. |
 |010|  11111   |  System  |RES|   Network  |RES|        |       |
 |   |          |  Number  |   |   Address  |   | Address|  ID   |
 +---+----------+----------+---+------------+---+--------+-------+

 where:

 010

      This is the Format Prefix used to identify provider-based
      unicast addresses.

 11111

      This is a Registry ID reserved by the IANA.  The initial use of
      addresses in this Registry ID for IPv6 testing is temporary.
      All users of these addresses will be required to renumber at
      some time in the future.

 Autonomous System Number

      This is the current autonomous system number assigned to the
      provider providing internet service to the an IPv6 testers
      organization.  For example for IPv6 testers receiving internet
      service from BBN Barrnet would use autonomous system number 189.
      This would be coded in the autonomous system field of the
      address as follows:

           0000 0000 1011 1101 (binary)

Hinden & Postel Experimental [Page 2]  RFC 1897 IPv6 Testing Address Allocation January 1996

      The values for the autonomous system number of an organization's
      provider can be obtained from that provider, or can be looked up
      in the "whois" database maintained by the internic.net.

 RES

      This field is reserved and must be set to zero.

 IPv4 Network Address

      This is based on the current IPv4 routable address for the
      subscriber which the interface is connected.  It is formed by
      taking the high order 24 bits of the IPv4 address.  For example
      for an IPv4 address (in IPv4 syntax):

           IPv4 Address
           ------------
           39.11.22.1

      the value to put in this field of IPv6 address is:

           IPv4 Format             Hex
           ------------            ------
           39.11.22                270B16

      This technique for generating values for this field only works
      for subscribers which have IPv4 subscriber prefixes less than
      equal to 24 bits long.  There may be subscribers using IPv4
      addresses with longer subscriber prefixes, but this conflict is
      expected to be very rare.  Subscribers with subscriber prefixes
      larger than 24 bits should use the remaining bits in the IPv4
      prefix as the high order bits in the Subnet Address field.

 RES

      This field is reserved and must be set to zero.

 Subnet Address

      The Subnet ID identifies a specific physical link on which the
      interface is located.  There can be multiple subnets on the same
      physical link.  A specific subnet can not span multiple physical
      links.  The assignment of values for this field is left to an
      individual subscriber.  One possible algorithm to generate
      values for this field is to use the bits in the IPv4 address
      which identify the IPv4 subnet.

Hinden & Postel Experimental [Page 3]  RFC 1897 IPv6 Testing Address Allocation January 1996

 Interface ID

      This is the unique identifier of the interface on the link,
      usually the 48-bit IEEE 802 MAC address of the interface if
      available.

4.0 References

[ARCH]  Hinden, R., and S. Deering, Editors, "IP Version 6
        Addressing Architecture", RFC 1884, Ipsilon Networks, Xerox
        PARC, December 1995.

[AUTO]  Thomson, S., "IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration",
        Work in Progress.

[DHCP6] Bound, J., "Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6", Work
        in Progress.

[PROV]  Rekhter, Y., and P. Lothberg, "An IPv6 Provider-Based
        Unicast Address Format", Work in Progress.

5.0 Security Considerations

 Security issues are not discussed in this memo.

6.0 Authors' Addresses

 Robert M. Hinden
 Ipsilon Networks, Inc.
 2191 E. Bayshore Road, Suite 100
 Palo Alto, CA 94303
 USA

 Phone: +1 415 846 4604
 Fax:   +1 415 855 1414
 EMail: hinden@ipsilon.com

 Jon Postel
 Information Sciences Institute
 4676 Admiralty Way
 Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6695
 USA

 Phone: +1 310 822 1511
 Fax:   +1 310 823 6714
 EMail: postel@isi.edu

Hinden & Postel Experimental [Page 4]