Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) S. Gundavelli Request for Comments: 6085 M. Townsley Updates: 2464 O. Troan Category: Standards Track W. Dec ISSN: 2070-1721 Cisco
January 2011
Address Mapping of IPv6 Multicast Packets on Ethernet
Abstract
When transmitting an IPv6 packet with a multicast destination address, the IPv6 destination address is mapped to an Ethernet link- layer multicast address. This document clarifies that a mapping of an IPv6 packet with a multicast destination address may in some circumstances map to an Ethernet link-layer unicast address.
Status of This Memo
This is an Internet Standards Track document.
This document is a product of the Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF). It represents the consensus of the IETF community. It has
received public review and has been approved for publication by the
Internet Engineering Steering Group (IESG). Further information on
Internet Standards is available in Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata, and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6085.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to this document. Code Components extracted from this document must include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as described in the Simplified BSD License.
Gundavelli, et al. Standards Track [Page 1] RFC 6085 Unicast Transmission on Link Layer January 2011
1. Introduction
"Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet Networks" ([RFC2464], Section 7) specifies how an IPv6 packet with a multicast destination address is mapped into an Ethernet link-layer address. This document extends this mapping to explicitly allow for a mapping of an IPv6 packet with a multicast destination address into an Ethernet link- layer unicast address, when it is clear that only one address is relevant.
This mapping does not replace the mapping described in [RFC2464], Section 7. The determination of the unicast Ethernet link-layer address and the construction of the outgoing IPv6 packet are out of scope for this document.
2. Conventions
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].
3. Receiving IPv6 Multicast Packets
An IPv6 node receiving an IPv6 packet with a multicast destination address and an Ethernet link-layer unicast address MUST NOT drop the packet as a result of the use of this form of address mapping.
4. Security Considerations
This document does not introduce any new security vulnerabilities.
5. Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Bernard Aboba, Fred Baker, Wes Beebee, Ron Bonica, Olaf Bonness, Jean-Michel Combes, Ralph Droms, Alain Durand, Suresh Krishnan, Eric Levy-Abegnoli, Phil Roberts, Behcet Sarikaya, Hemant Singh, Mark Smith, Dave Thaler, Pascal Thubert, Stig Venaas, and Eric Voit for their contributions and discussions on this topic.
6. Normative References
[RFC2119] Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.
[RFC2464] Crawford, M., "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet
Networks", RFC 2464, December 1998.
Gundavelli, et al. Standards Track [Page 2] RFC 6085 Unicast Transmission on Link Layer January 2011
Authors' Addresses
Sri Gundavelli Cisco 170 West Tasman Drive San Jose, CA 95134 USA
EMail: sgundave@cisco.com
Mark Townsley Cisco L'Atlantis, 11, Rue Camille Desmoulins ISSY LES MOULINEAUX, ILE DE FRANCE 92782 France
EMail: townsley@cisco.com
Ole Troan Cisco Oslo, Norway
EMail: ot@cisco.com
Wojciech Dec Cisco Haarlerbergweg 13-19 Amsterdam, Noord-Holland 1101 CH Netherlands
EMail: wdec@cisco.com
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