Skip to main content

Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses
draft-ietf-ipngwg-resv-anycast-02

The information below is for an old version of the document that is already published as an RFC.
Document Type
This is an older version of an Internet-Draft that was ultimately published as RFC 2526.
Authors Dr. Steve E. Deering , David B. Johnson
Last updated 2023-09-29 (Latest revision 1999-01-27)
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
Intended RFC status Proposed Standard
Formats
Additional resources Mailing list discussion
Stream WG state (None)
Document shepherd (None)
IESG IESG state Became RFC 2526 (Proposed Standard)
Consensus boilerplate Unknown
Telechat date (None)
Responsible AD (None)
Send notices to (None)
draft-ietf-ipngwg-resv-anycast-02
IETF IPng Working Group                                 David B. Johnson
INTERNET-DRAFT                                Carnegie Mellon University
                                                      Stephen E. Deering
                                                     Cisco Systems, Inc.
                                                         26 January 1999

                 Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses

                <draft-ietf-ipngwg-resv-anycast-02.txt>

Status of This Memo

   This document is a submission by the IPng Working Group of the
   Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).  Comments should be submitted
   to the Working Group mailing list at "ipng@sunroof.Eng.Sun.COM".
   Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

   This document is an Internet-Draft.  Internet-Drafts are working
   documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas,
   and its working groups.  Note that other groups may also distribute
   working documents as Internet-Drafts.

   Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months
   and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at
   any time.  It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference
   material or to cite them other than as "work in progress".

   To view the list Internet-Draft Shadow Directories, see

   http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   The IP Version 6 addressing architecture defines an "anycast" address
   as an IPv6 address that is assigned to one or more network interfaces
   (typically belonging to different nodes), with the property that
   a packet sent to an anycast address is routed to the "nearest"
   interface having that address, according to the routing protocols'
   measure of distance.  This document defines a set of reserved anycast
   addresses within each subnet prefix, and lists the initial allocation
   of these reserved subnet anycast addresses.

Johnson and Deering            Expires 26 July 1999             [Page i]


INTERNET-DRAFT  Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses   26 January 1999

1. Introduction

   IP Version 6 (IPv6) defines a new type of address, known as an
   "anycast" address, that allows a packet to be routed to one of a
   number of different nodes all responding to the same address [2, 3].
   The anycast address may be assigned to one or more network interfaces
   (typically on different nodes), with the network delivering packets
   addressed to this address to the "nearest" interface based on the
   notion of "distance" determined by the routing protocols in use.

   The uses of anycast addresses are still evolving, but such addresses
   offer the potential for a number of important services [5, 6].  For
   example, an anycast address may be used to allow nodes to access
   one of a collection of servers providing a well-known service,
   without manual configuration in each node of the list of servers; or
   an anycast address may be used in a source route to force routing
   through a specific internet service provider, without limiting
   routing to a single specific router providing access to that ISP.

   IPv6 defines a required Subnet-Router anycast address [3] for
   all routers within a subnet prefix, and allows additional anycast
   addresses to be taken from the unicast address space.  This document
   defines an additional set of reserved anycast addresses within each
   subnet prefix, and lists the initial allocation of these reserved
   subnet anycast addresses.

   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 [1].

2. Format of Reserved Subnet Anycast Addresses

   Within each subnet, the highest 128 interface identifier values are
   reserved for assignment as subnet anycast addresses.

   The construction of a reserved subnet anycast address depends on
   the type of IPv6 addresses used within the subnet, as indicated
   by the format prefix in the addresses.  In particular, for IPv6
   address types required to have to have 64-bit interface identifiers
   in EUI-64 format, the universal/local bit MUST be set to 0 (local)
   in all reserved subnet anycast addresses, to indicate that the
   interface identifier in the address is not globally unique.  IPv6
   addresses of this type are currently specified to be those having
   format prefixes 001 through 111, except for Multicast Addresses
   (1111 1111) [3].

Johnson and Deering            Expires 26 July 1999             [Page 1]
INTERNET-DRAFT  Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses   26 January 1999

   Specifically, for IPv6 address types required to have to have 64-bit
   interface identifiers in EUI-64 format, these reserved subnet anycast
   addresses are constructed as follows:

   |              64 bits            |      57 bits     |   7 bits   |
   +---------------------------------+------------------+------------+
   |           subnet prefix         | 1111110111...111 | anycast ID |
   +---------------------------------+------------------+------------+
                                     |   interface identifier field  |

   For other IPv6 address types (that is, with format prefixes other
   than those listed above), the interface identifier is not in EUI-64
   format and may be other than 64 bits in length; these reserved subnet
   anycast addresses for such address types are constructed as follows:

   |              n bits             |    121-n bits    |   7 bits   |
   +---------------------------------+------------------+------------+
   |           subnet prefix         | 1111111...111111 | anycast ID |
   +---------------------------------+------------------+------------+
                                     |   interface identifier field  |

   The subnet prefix here consists of all fields of the IPv6 address
   except the interface identifier field.  The interface identifier
   field in these reserved subnet anycast addresses is formed from a
   7-bit anycast identifier ("anycast ID"), with the remaining (highest
   order) bits filled with all one's; however, for interface identifiers
   in EUI-64 format, the universal/local bit in the interface identifier
   MUST be set to 0.  The anycast identifier identifies a particular
   reserved anycast address within the subnet prefix, from the set of
   reserved subnet anycast addresses.

   The motivation for reserving the highest addresses from each subnet
   rather than the lowest addresses, is to avoid conflicting with some
   existing official and unofficial uses of the low-numbered addresses
   in a subnet.  For example, these low-numbered addresses are often
   used for the ends of a point-to-point link, for tunnel endpoints, for
   manually configured unicast addresses when a hardware token is not
   available for the network interface, and even for manually configured
   static addresses for the routers on a link.  Reserving only 128
   values for anycast identifiers (rather than perhaps 256) means that
   the minimum possible size of interface identifiers in an IPv6 address
   is 8 bits (including room in the subnet for unicast addresses as
   well as reserved subnet anycast addresses), allowing the division
   between subnet prefix and interface identifier in this case to be
   byte-aligned.

   As with all IPv6 anycast addresses [3], these reserved subnet anycast
   addresses are allocated from the IPv6 unicast address space.  All
   reserved subnet anycast addresses as defined in this document are

Johnson and Deering            Expires 26 July 1999             [Page 2]
INTERNET-DRAFT  Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses   26 January 1999

   reserved on all links, with all subnet prefixes.  They MUST NOT be
   used for unicast addresses assigned to any interface.

3. List of Reserved Subnet Anycast Addresses

   Currently, the following anycast identifiers for these reserved
   subnet anycast addresses are defined:

     Decimal   Hexadecimal     Description
     -------   -----------     -----------
      127         7F           Reserved
      126         7E           Mobile IPv6 Home-Agents anycast [4]
      0-125       00-7D        Reserved

   Additional anycast identifiers are expected to be defined in the
   future.

4. Examples

   To illustrate the construction of reserved subnet anycast addresses,
   this section details the construction of the reserved Mobile IPv6
   Home-Agents subnet anycast address [4].  As noted in Section 3, the
   7-bit anycast identifier for the Mobile IPv6 Home-Agents anycast
   address is 126 (decimal) or 7E (hexadecimal).

   For IPv6 addresses containing a format prefix indicating that
   interface identifiers are required to be 64 bits in length and are
   required to be in EUI-64 format (currently format prefixes 001
   through 111, except for 1111 1111 [3]), the reserved Mobile IPv6
   Home-Agents subnet anycast address consists of the 64-bit subnet
   prefix followed by the 64-bit interface identifier shown below:

   |0              1|1              3|3              4|4              6|
   |0              5|6              1|2              7|8              3|
   +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
   |1111110111111111|1111111111111111|1111111111111111|1111111111111110|
   +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
          ^                                                     ^^^^^^^
          +--- universal/local bit        anycast identifier ---+-----+

   For other IPv6 address types, the interface identifier may be other
   than 64 bits in length and is not in EUI-64 format.  In this example,
   assume that the length of the interface identifier is 64 bits,
   to allow clear comparison with the example given above (although
   interface identifiers of lengths other than 64 bits follow the same
   general construction of the interface identifier shown here).  In
   this case, the reserved Mobile IPv6 Home-Agents subnet anycast

Johnson and Deering            Expires 26 July 1999             [Page 3]
INTERNET-DRAFT  Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses   26 January 1999

   address consists of the 64-bit subnet prefix followed by the 64-bit
   interface identifier shown below:

   |0              1|1              3|3              4|4              6|
   |0              5|6              1|2              7|8              3|
   +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
   |1111111111111111|1111111111111111|1111111111111111|1111111111111110|
   +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
                                                                ^^^^^^^
                                          anycast identifier ---+-----+

5. IANA Considerations

   This document defines a set of reserved subnet anycast addresses,
   based on a set of anycast identifiers within each subnet prefix
   in the IPv6 unicast address space.  As future needs arise, new
   anycast identifiers may be defined.  Such anycast identifiers MUST be
   reserved within all subnet prefixes, and so the assignment of these
   anycast identifiers requires centralized administration.  New values
   SHOULD be assigned in descending numerical order and are expected to
   be assigned only with IESG approval.

6. Security Considerations

   The use of any type of reserved anycast addresses poses a security
   concern only in allowing potential attackers a well-known address to
   attack.  By designating certain services to be located at specific
   reserved anycast addresses, an attacker may more profitably focus an
   attack against such a specific service.  Any such attack, however, is
   best dealt with in each service that uses a reserved anycast address.

   RFC 1546, which originally proposed the idea of anycasting in IP,
   also points out a number of security considerations with the use of
   anycasting in general [6].

Johnson and Deering            Expires 26 July 1999             [Page 4]
INTERNET-DRAFT  Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses   26 January 1999

References

   [1] Scott Bradner.  Key words for use in RFCs to indicate requirement
       levels.  RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [2] Stephen E. Deering and Robert M. Hinden.  Internet Protocol
       version 6 (IPv6) specification.  RFC 2460, December 1998.

   [3] Robert M. Hinden and Stephen E. Deering.  IP Version 6 addressing
       architecture.  RFC 2373, July 1998.

   [4] David B. Johnson and Charles Perkins.  Mobility support in IPv6.
       Internet-Draft, draft-ietf-mobileip-ipv6-07.txt, November 1998.
       Work in progress.

   [5] Steve King et al.  The case for IPv6.  Internet-Draft,
       draft-ietf-iab-case-for-ipv6-03.txt, November 1998.  Work in
       progress.

   [6] Craig Partridge, Trevor Mendez, and Walter Milliken.  Host
       anycasting service.  RFC 1546, November 1993.

Authors' Addresses

   David B. Johnson                          Stephen E. Deering
   Carnegie Mellon University                Cisco Systems, Inc.
   Computer Science Department               170 West Tasman Drive
   5000 Forbes Avenue                        San Jose, CA 95134-1706
   Pittsburgh, PA  15213-3891                USA
   USA

   Phone:  +1 412 268-7399                   Phone:  +1 408 527-8213
   Fax:    +1 412 268-5576                   Fax:    +1 408 527-8254
   Email:  dbj@cs.cmu.edu                    Email:  deering@cisco.com

Johnson and Deering            Expires 26 July 1999             [Page 5]
INTERNET-DRAFT  Reserved IPv6 Subnet Anycast Addresses   26 January 1999

Full Copyright Statement

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

   This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
   others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
   or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
   and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
   kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph
   are included on all such copies and derivative works.  However,
   this document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by
   removing the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society
   or other Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose
   of developing Internet standards in which case the procedures
   for copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
   followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
   English.

   The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
   revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

   This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
   "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
   TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
   BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
   HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
   MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.

Johnson and Deering            Expires 26 July 1999             [Page 6]