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The length of the prefix of an IPv6 link-local address ranges from 10 to 127
draft-petrescu-6man-ll-prefix-len-13

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This is an older version of an Internet-Draft whose latest revision state is "Expired".
Authors Alexandre Petrescu , Loganaden Velvindron , Naveen Kottapalli
Last updated 2019-04-26
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draft-petrescu-6man-ll-prefix-len-13
6MAN Working Group                                           A. Petrescu
Internet-Draft                                                 CEA, LIST
Updates: RFC4291, RFC4007 (if approved)                    L. Velvindron
Intended status: Standards Track                           Cyberstorm.mu
Expires: October 28, 2019                                  N. Kottapalli
                                                           Benu Networks
                                                          April 26, 2019

The length of the prefix of an IPv6 link-local address ranges from 10 to
                                  127
                  draft-petrescu-6man-ll-prefix-len-13

Abstract

   A rejected Erratum to RFC4291 "IPv6 Addr Archi" on the topic of link-
   local addresses 'would need' a draft.  This is an answer to that
   need.

   The length of the prefix of an IPv6 link-local address is variable.
   The minimal value is 10 decimal.  The maximum value is 127 decimal.

Status of This Memo

   This Internet-Draft is submitted in full conformance with the
   provisions of BCP 78 and BCP 79.

   Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering
   Task Force (IETF).  Note that other groups may also distribute
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   Drafts is at https://datatracker.ietf.org/drafts/current/.

   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."

   This Internet-Draft will expire on October 28, 2019.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2019 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
   (https://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
   publication of this document.  Please review these documents

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   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.

Table of Contents

   1.  Definitions and Statements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   2
   2.  Terminology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   3.  Problem Statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   3
   4.  Context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   4
   5.  Example of use of LL Prefix Length 32 . . . . . . . . . . . .   6
   6.  Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   7.  IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   8.  Contributors  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   9.  Acknowledgements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   7
   10. Normative References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Appendix A.  ChangeLog  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   8
   Authors' Addresses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   9

1.  Definitions and Statements

   The prefix of an IP address is formed by the n leftmost bits of the
   address.  (in a left-to-right writing system).

   The prefix of an IP address is used for goals such as: identify the
   type of an IPv6 address (link-local, global, others), identify the
   belonging of an IP address to a particular subnetwork, assist the
   forwarding (or not forwarding) decisions, and others.

   The minimal length of the prefix of an IPv6 link-local address (the
   value of n) is equal to 10 decimal.  The maximum is 127.

   The prefix of an IPv6 link-local address is represented textually as
   "fe80::/n", where n MAY be any value between 10 and 127.

   Regardless of the prefix length, the leftmost 10 bits of an IPv6
   link-local address MUST be set to binary 1111111010 (hexadecimal
   fe80).

   The illustration of an IPv6 link-local address is:

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     | leftmost |         Subnet ID and Interface ID
     | 10 bits  |                 118 bits                             |
     +----------+------------------------------------------------------+
     |1111111010+          Bits that MAY be either 0 or 1              |
     +----------+------------------------------------------------------+

                   Figure 1: The IPv6 link-local address

   Examples: fe80::1/10, fe80:1::1/32 and fe80::1:1/64 are all IPv6
   link-local addresses; their prefix lengths are 10, 32 and 64
   respectively.  Each such IPv6 address has the leftmost 10 bits equal
   to binary 1111111010.

   The Difficulty: the number binary 1111111010 can not be written in
   hexadecimal without specifying the number of significant bits
   (fe80::/10); yet that does not make it a 'prefix'.  Converting
   1111111010 to hexadecimal leads to 3FA (because in a left-to-right
   writing system the leading 0s before comma are irrelevant); yet '3FA'
   is not commonly known to be the leading bits of an IPv6 link-local
   address, fe80::/10 is.

2.  Terminology

   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].

   prefix: a contiguous string of bits valid for forwarding operations
   and for subnet formation.  A prefix MUST have an integer length value
   from 1 to 127 (except when the prefix length is for default route, in
   which case the value is 0) and a prefix length must be indicated in
   its textual representation (e.g. 2001:db8::/32 is the prefix and 32
   is the prefix length).

   textual representation of a prefix: e.g. fe80::/64.

   n leading bits: the first n bits in a string of bits read from left
   to right in a writing system that is read left-to-right.  E.g. the 10
   leading bits of the fe80::/64 textual representation of the IPv6
   link-local prefix are 1111111010.

3.  Problem Statement

   IPv6 link-local addresses are typically self-configured according to
   4 RFCs and relying on the fe80::/10 IANA allocation, RFC4291 54 0
   bits, and RFC24262 MAC-based 64bit Interface IDs.  In some cases, it
   is advantageous to manually configure link-local addresses.  This is

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   useful for easy remembering by humans, and for parameter resilience
   during network interface replacement.

   Manual configuration of an LL address may use short IID and Subnet
   ID.  The Subnet ID presence in the link-local address is useful in
   some wireless settings where the subnet structure parameters depend
   on the link locality.  Other settings may also benefit.

   When manually setting the link-local address it is necessary to know
   the length of the prefix of the subnet on which this link-local
   address is present.  This length is necessary for on-link
   determination.

   Some solutions to this problem are: use an address of the form
   fe80:1::2/32, or use an address of the form fe80::1:2/64, where 1 is
   the Subnet ID and 2 is the Interface ID.  Other solutions involve a
   hidden 'scope_id' and the use of special syntax ('%') to denote an
   interface.  Each of these solutions have other problems of their own:
   set some of the 54 mandatorily reset bits of RFC4291, not
   implementable on some OS, invade the IID with a Subnet ID, and
   potentially others.

4.  Context

   draft-bourbaki-6man-classless-ipv6-05 describes the motivation of
   considering IPv6 to be classless.  It gives a little bit of history
   of why it is how it is.  It proposes the rigid 64 IID length to be
   probably the last remnant of the boundary.

   A memo describes the use of IPv6 link-local addresses in
   applications.  The filename of the Internet Draft is draft-smith-
   ipv6-link-locals-apps-00.

   The RFC "IPv6 Address Archi" illustrates the format of the link-local
   addresses.  From the illustration it MAY be understood that the
   length of the link-local prefix is 10 bits of value 1111111010 and 54
   0 bits.

   IANA lists the "IPv6 prefix", and "Address Block", to be "fe80::/10"
   on its website.  It is possible that in the future the IETF could
   decide to use the bits 11-53.

   The RFC 2464 "IPv6-over-Ethernet" states that the prefix for link-
   local addresses is "fe80::/64".

   RFC 6874, "Representing IPv6 Zone Identifiers in Address Literals and
   Uniform Resource Identifiers" specifies the link-local addresses to
   be under prefix "fe80::/10".

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   RFC 8415 "DHCPv6" considers that link-local addresses are designated
   by the prefix fe80::/10.

   RFC 4007 "IPv6 Scoped Address Architecture" discusses Zone ID.  A
   Zone ID may be used - internally - in the 54bits of a link-local
   address, even though these 54bits appear to be reset.  The document
   mentions at a point that fe80::1 could be used in two separate
   physical links (not virtual, like the loopback).

   RFC4291 requires that an IPv6 link-local address be assigned on each
   interface.  Yet, it does not require the link-local prefix to be
   associated to an interface.

   RFC4861 requires that the link local prefix be present in the Prefix
   List associated with an interface, although it does not specify the
   length of the link local prefix.

   RFC4862 "SLAAC" defines how GUAs and LLs self-configure.  Whereas the
   GUA gets its prefix length from the RA (not from an RFC), the LL gets
   it from RFC4291 (not from RA).  They are independent choices based on
   distinct sources.

   Several knowledgeable interpretations state that, generally speaking,
   the prefix length of link-local addresses is 10, but it is 64 in the
   particular case of Stateless Address-Autoconfiguration (SLAAC).  In
   this latter case, the prefix is named a "subnet prefix", or "prefix
   on a link", and it is "fe80::/64".

   The term "link-local prefix" is sometimes used to mean the prefix for
   on-link determination, and is sometimes used to mean the reserved
   address space for link-local addresses (including all current and
   future use).  The latter is fe80::/10.  Of which the address
   architecture spec only gives the addresses that match fe80::/64 the
   standard format (by specifying intermediate 54 bits are all 0).  As a
   result the former is (currently) only fe80::/64.

   For people in the RIR world it's a common thing: you get a prefix
   from the RIR and then make assignments from it for specific purposes.
   You can route the aggregate allocation, but you're not allowed to use
   the unassigned parts (until you make an assignment).  In this case
   fe80::/10 is the allocation and fe80::/64 is the assignment.

   Independent testing shows that 'ifconfig add fe80:1::1' works on
   linux but fails on openbsd.  The same command works on a Cisco
   router.

   Interpretations of the situation of linux working ok with fe80:1::1
   call it a violation of standards.

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   The address fe80::1/128 is present on the loopback interface of BSD.

   Implementations of an IPv6 stack in a particular operating system
   (linux) allow for the manual configuration of both prefix lengths 64
   and 10 for link-local addresses.

   In another operating system the prefix length for link-local
   addresses can not be explicitely specified by the end user, but may
   be indirectly derived from two distinct textual formats by using an
   unspecified rule.

   In yet another operating system (FreeBSD) an end user can not use a
   link-local address whose value is fe80:1::1; because in that OS the
   hosts drop incoming packets whose source or destination address
   matches fe80::/10 and contains a non-0 value in bits 15-31 (like
   fe80:1::1 does).  The URL of the C code in OpenBSD that leads to make
   that packet drop is
   https://github.com/openbsd/src/blob/master/sys/netinet6/ip6_input.c

   In a particular operating system (openbsd), it is possible to run
   SLAAC with Interface IDentifiers of length different than 64, e.g.
   100; this implements RFC7217.  In that same operating system it is
   not possible to use an Interface Identifier of length 100.  At the
   same time, in another operating system (linux) it is possible to use
   Interface IDentifiers of length 100, yet SLAAC does not work with IID
   that is not 64.  In an ideal linux-bsd operating system any length of
   IID would be possible.

   The loopback interface is required to have a link-local address too
   (RFC4291), although some OSs dont (linux).  The RFC4007 clarifies
   that, somehow.

   Misconfigurations and lack of interoperability MAY arise between
   computers that use mixed prefix lengths for link-local addresses.

   Historical note: earlier, the link-local prefix fe80::/10 and site-
   local prefix fec0::/10 were grouped into a common fe80::/9.  If bits
   10-64 were 0 then the prefix was a link-local, otherwise a site-
   local.  The site-local addresses were later deprecated by RFC 3879.

5.  Example of use of LL Prefix Length 32

   This figure shows two routers each with two interfaces; one such
   interface is connected to the other router; there are two interfaces
   that point elsewhere.

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                         i1 ------- i2      i3-------i4
                         --|Router1|---------|Router2|---
                            -------           -------

    i2 address is fe80:12::1:1/32 ('12' means subnet between R1 and R2,
    '1' is R1, 2nd '1' is 'front' interface)
    i3 address is fe80:12::2:2/32

                             Figure 2: Figure

   One router's interface (connected to the other router) uses address
   fe80:12::1:1/32 and the other router's corresponding interface uses
   address fe80:12::2:2/32.

6.  Security Considerations

   The clarification of the definition of the prefix length of the IPv6
   link-local prefix at IANA is: call it 'leading bits' and not
   'prefix', or state that the IPv6 prefix length of link-local
   addresses is 10 decimal.  This clarification has beneficial impact in
   the algorithm implementation for calculation of the opaque and stable
   Interface Identifiers for IPv6 link-local addresses.  It also
   positively impacts some implementations of IPv6 forwarding.

7.  IANA Considerations

   IANA is requested to change the name of the column head in the table
   that depicts the "Internet Protocol Version 6 Address Space".  The
   name should be "The n leading bits of an address" instead of "IPv6
   Prefix".

   The desired effect of this change is that the IPv6 link-local prefix
   be "fe80::/n" and that the 10 leading bits of this prefix be
   1111111010.  A second effect would be that the textual representation
   "fe80::/10" as an IPv6 link-local prefix would disappear from that
   IANA page.

8.  Contributors

   Listed from 6man WG discussion.

9.  Acknowledgements

   The following persons are acknowledged for the discussion that is
   reflected in this draft.  Not all points are reflected.  Some points
   are copied almost entirely.

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   Ole Troan, Scott Timothy Morizot, Brian Carpenter, Fred Baker, Mark
   Smith, Peter Occil, Philip Homburg, Albert Manfredi, _–3/4
   ’BAE (TATUYA Jinmei), Fernando Gont, Christian Huitema,
   Simon Hobson, Matthew Petach, Yucel Guven, Sander Steffann, Dennis
   Ferguson, Musa Stephen Honlue, Fred Templin, Gyan Mishra, Yu
   Tianpeng.

   Peter Paluch submitted the Erratum suggestion to RFC 4291 about link-
   local addresses, and Brian Haberman rejected it, by noting 'would
   need' a draft.  Igor Lubashev pointed to that Errata.

10.  Normative References

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119,
              DOI 10.17487/RFC2119, March 1997,
              <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc2119>.

Appendix A.  ChangeLog

   The changes are listed in reverse chronological order, most recent
   changes appearing at the top of the list.

   -13: added a Problem Statement section; added the name of the
   Organisation of one co-author; distinguished between 'need' and
   'would need' a draft.

   -12: the '64' in GUA vs '64' in LL issued by distinct sources: RA vs
   RFC4291 respectively; the address fe80::1/128 is present on the
   loopback interface of BSD; detailed, again, the distinction for 'on-
   link' determination; detailed, again, the distinction between
   'assignment' and 'allocation'; added the fact that Cisco supports
   manual assignment of fe80:1::1.

   -11: trying the attribute updates=RFC4291,RFC4007 in the rfc tag.

   -10: syntax error corrected; more explanation about how FreeBSD C
   code blocks fe80:1::1; clarification in IANA section, but doubtful.

   -09: added a reference to RFC 4007 about Zone ID in LL; added a
   reference to draft-bourbaki about IPv6 being classless; added the
   result of independent testing showing ifconfig add fe80:1::1 works on
   linux but fails on BSD; added URL to C code in BSD flavor that may be
   in charge of dropping packets whose src/dst is an LL like fe80:1::1;
   added two co-authors.

   -08: added explanation of which RFC requires the LL address to be
   present, and which requires the LL prefix to be present; named the

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   OSs, instead of staying generic; explained that the lack of
   requirement of ll address on lo in RFC4291 is covered by another
   RFC4007; explained that openbsd allows variable len IID for GUAs but
   not for LLs, yet linux allows the reverse, and concluded on an
   obvious ideal.

   -07: added the fact that DHCPv6 spec considers the link-local
   addresses to be fe80::/10; added a valuable explanation of ll
   behaviour of a particularly important OS.

   -04: added an example advantage of using prefix length 32.

   -03:

   -02: corrected a typo in "fe80::/1" and added a 7-bit encoding for
   one persons name (in addition to the japanese-shift-jis encoding
   which is not understood by xml2rfc.)

Authors' Addresses

   Alexandre Petrescu
   CEA, LIST
   CEA Saclay
   Gif-sur-Yvette , Ile-de-France   91190
   France

   Phone: +33169089223
   Email: Alexandre.Petrescu@cea.fr

   Loganaden Velvindron
   Cyberstorm.mu
   street
   city , region   code
   country

   Phone: +phonenumber
   Email: loganaden@gmail.com

   Naveen Kottapalli
   Benu Networks
   street
   City , Region   code
   Country

   Phone: +phonenumber
   Email: naveen.sarma@gmail.com

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