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Basic Requirements for IPv6 Customer Edge Routers
RFC 7084

Document Type RFC - Informational (November 2013) Errata
Updated by RFC 9096
Obsoletes RFC 6204
Authors Hemant Singh , Wes Beebee , Chris Donley , Barbara Stark
Last updated 2023-11-15
RFC stream Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
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IESG Responsible AD Ron Bonica
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RFC 7084
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)                          H. Singh
Request for Comments: 7084                                     W. Beebee
Obsoletes: 6204                                      Cisco Systems, Inc.
Category: Informational                                        C. Donley
ISSN: 2070-1721                                                CableLabs
                                                                B. Stark
                                                                    AT&T
                                                           November 2013

           Basic Requirements for IPv6 Customer Edge Routers

Abstract

   This document specifies requirements for an IPv6 Customer Edge (CE)
   router.  Specifically, the current version of this document focuses
   on the basic provisioning of an IPv6 CE router and the provisioning
   of IPv6 hosts attached to it.  The document also covers IP transition
   technologies.  Two transition technologies in RFC 5969's IPv6 Rapid
   Deployment on IPv4 Infrastructures (6rd) and RFC 6333's Dual-Stack
   Lite (DS-Lite) are covered in the document.  The document obsoletes
   RFC 6204.

Status of This Memo

   This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
   published for informational purposes.

   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).  Not all documents
   approved by the IESG are a candidate for any level of Internet
   Standard; see 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/rfc7084.

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RFC 7084               IPv6 CE Router Requirements         November 2013

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (c) 2013 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.

Table of Contents

   1. Introduction ....................................................3
      1.1. Requirements Language ......................................3
   2. Terminology .....................................................4
   3. Architecture ....................................................5
      3.1. Current IPv4 End-User Network Architecture .................5
      3.2. IPv6 End-User Network Architecture .........................5
           3.2.1. Local Communication .................................7
   4. Requirements ....................................................7
      4.1. General Requirements .......................................7
      4.2. WAN-Side Configuration .....................................8
      4.3. LAN-Side Configuration ....................................12
      4.4. Transition Technologies Support ...........................14
           4.4.1. 6rd ................................................14
           4.4.2. Dual-Stack Lite (DS-Lite) ..........................15
      4.5. Security Considerations ...................................16
   5. Acknowledgements ...............................................17
   6. Contributors ...................................................17
   7. References .....................................................18
      7.1. Normative References ......................................18
      7.2. Informative References ....................................20

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RFC 7084               IPv6 CE Router Requirements         November 2013

1.  Introduction

   This document defines basic IPv6 features for a residential or small-
   office router, referred to as an "IPv6 CE router", in order to
   establish an industry baseline for features to be implemented on such
   a router.

   These routers typically also support IPv4.

   Mixed environments of dual-stack hosts and IPv6-only hosts (behind
   the CE router) can be more complex if the IPv6-only devices are using
   a translator to access IPv4 servers [RFC6144].  Support for such
   mixed environments is not in scope of this document.

   This document specifies how an IPv6 CE router automatically
   provisions its WAN interface, acquires address space for provisioning
   of its LAN interfaces, and fetches other configuration information
   from the service provider network.  Automatic provisioning of more
   complex topology than a single router with multiple LAN interfaces is
   out of scope for this document.

   See [RFC4779] for a discussion of options available for deploying
   IPv6 in service provider access networks.

   The document also covers the IP transition technologies that were
   available at the time this document was written.  Two transition
   technologies in 6rd [RFC5969] and DS-Lite [RFC6333] are covered in
   the document.

1.1.  Requirements Language

   Take careful note: Unlike other IETF documents, the key words "MUST",
   "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT",
   "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this document are not used as
   described in RFC 2119 [RFC2119].  This document uses these keywords
   not strictly for the purpose of interoperability, but rather for the
   purpose of establishing industry-common baseline functionality.  As
   such, the document points to several other specifications (preferable
   in RFC or stable form) to provide additional guidance to implementers
   regarding any protocol implementation required to produce a
   successful CE router that interoperates successfully with a
   particular subset of currently deploying and planned common IPv6
   access networks.

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2.  Terminology

   End-User Network          one or more links attached to the IPv6 CE
                             router that connect IPv6 hosts.

   IPv6 Customer Edge Router a node intended for home or small-office
                             use that forwards IPv6 packets not
                             explicitly addressed to itself.  The IPv6
                             CE router connects the end-user network to
                             a service provider network.

   IPv6 Host                 any device implementing an IPv6 stack
                             receiving IPv6 connectivity through the
                             IPv6 CE router.

   LAN Interface             an IPv6 CE router's attachment to a link in
                             the end-user network.  Examples are
                             Ethernet (simple or bridged), 802.11
                             wireless, or other LAN technologies.  An
                             IPv6 CE router may have one or more
                             network-layer LAN interfaces.

   Service Provider          an entity that provides access to the
                             Internet.  In this document, a service
                             provider specifically offers Internet
                             access using IPv6, and it may also offer
                             IPv4 Internet access.  The service provider
                             can provide such access over a variety of
                             different transport methods such as DSL,
                             cable, wireless, and others.

   WAN Interface             an IPv6 CE router's attachment to a link
                             used to provide connectivity to the service
                             provider network; example link technologies
                             include Ethernet (simple or bridged), PPP
                             links, Frame Relay, or ATM networks, as
                             well as Internet-layer (or higher-layer)
                             "tunnels", such as tunnels over IPv4 or
                             IPv6 itself.

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3.  Architecture

3.1.  Current IPv4 End-User Network Architecture

   An end-user network will likely support both IPv4 and IPv6.  It is
   not expected that an end user will change their existing network
   topology with the introduction of IPv6.  There are some differences
   in how IPv6 works and is provisioned; these differences have
   implications for the network architecture.  A typical IPv4 end-user
   network consists of a "plug and play" router with NAT functionality
   and a single link behind it, connected to the service provider
   network.

   A typical IPv4 NAT deployment by default blocks all incoming
   connections.  Opening of ports is typically allowed using a Universal
   Plug and Play Internet Gateway Device (UPnP IGD) [UPnP-IGD] or some
   other firewall control protocol.

   Another consequence of using private address space in the end-user
   network is that it provides stable addressing; that is, it never
   changes even when you change service providers, and the addresses are
   always there even when the WAN interface is down or the customer edge
   router has not yet been provisioned.

   Many existing routers support dynamic routing (which learns routes
   from other routers), and advanced end-users can build arbitrary,
   complex networks using manual configuration of address prefixes
   combined with a dynamic routing protocol.

3.2.  IPv6 End-User Network Architecture

   The end-user network architecture for IPv6 should provide equivalent
   or better capabilities and functionality than the current IPv4
   architecture.

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   The end-user network is a stub network.  Figure 1 illustrates the
   model topology for the end-user network.

                   +-------+-------+                      \
                   |   Service     |                       \
                   |   Provider    |                        | Service
                   |    Router     |                        | Provider
                   +-------+-------+                        | Network
                           |                               /
                           | Customer                     /
                           | Internet Connection         /
                           |
                    +------+--------+                    \
                    |     IPv6      |                     \
                    | Customer Edge |                      \
                    |    Router     |                      /
                    +---+-------+-+-+                     /
        Network A       |       |   Network B            | End-User
  ---+-------------+----+-    --+--+-------------+---    | Network(s)
     |             |               |             |        \
 +----+-----+ +-----+----+     +----+-----+ +-----+----+   \
 |IPv6 Host | |IPv6 Host |     | IPv6 Host| |IPv6 Host |   /
 |          | |          |     |          | |          |  /
 +----------+ +-----+----+     +----------+ +----------+ /

            Figure 1: An Example of a Typical End-User Network

   This architecture describes the:

   o  Basic capabilities of an IPv6 CE router

   o  Provisioning of the WAN interface connecting to the service
      provider

   o  Provisioning of the LAN interfaces

   For IPv6 multicast traffic, the IPv6 CE router may act as a Multicast
   Listener Discovery (MLD) proxy [RFC4605] and may support a dynamic
   multicast routing protocol.

   The IPv6 CE router may be manually configured in an arbitrary
   topology with a dynamic routing protocol.  Automatic provisioning and
   configuration are described for a single IPv6 CE router only.

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3.2.1.  Local Communication

   Link-local IPv6 addresses are used by hosts communicating on a single
   link.  Unique Local IPv6 Unicast Addresses (ULAs) [RFC4193] are used
   by hosts communicating within the end-user network across multiple
   links, but without requiring the application to use a globally
   routable address.  The IPv6 CE router defaults to acting as the
   demarcation point between two networks by providing a ULA boundary, a
   multicast zone boundary, and ingress and egress traffic filters.

   At the time of this writing, several host implementations do not
   handle the case where they have an IPv6 address configured and no
   IPv6 connectivity, either because the address itself has a limited
   topological reachability (e.g., ULA) or because the IPv6 CE router is
   not connected to the IPv6 network on its WAN interface.  To support
   host implementations that do not handle multihoming in a multi-prefix
   environment [MULTIHOMING-WITHOUT-NAT], the IPv6 CE router should not,
   as detailed in the requirements below, advertise itself as a default
   router on the LAN interface(s) when it does not have IPv6
   connectivity on the WAN interface or when it is not provisioned with
   IPv6 addresses.  For local IPv6 communication, the mechanisms
   specified in [RFC4191] are used.

   ULA addressing is useful where the IPv6 CE router has multiple LAN
   interfaces with hosts that need to communicate with each other.  If
   the IPv6 CE router has only a single LAN interface (IPv6 link), then
   link-local addressing can be used instead.

   Coexistence with IPv4 requires any IPv6 CE router(s) on the LAN to
   conform to these recommendations, especially requirements ULA-5 and
   L-4 below.

4.  Requirements

4.1.  General Requirements

   The IPv6 CE router is responsible for implementing IPv6 routing; that
   is, the IPv6 CE router must look up the IPv6 destination address in
   its routing table to decide to which interface it should send the
   packet.

   In this role, the IPv6 CE router is responsible for ensuring that
   traffic using its ULA addressing does not go out the WAN interface
   and does not originate from the WAN interface.

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   G-1:  An IPv6 CE router is an IPv6 node according to the IPv6 Node
         Requirements specification [RFC6434].

   G-2:  The IPv6 CE router MUST implement ICMPv6 according to
         [RFC4443].  In particular, point-to-point links MUST be handled
         as described in Section 3.1 of [RFC4443].

   G-3:  The IPv6 CE router MUST NOT forward any IPv6 traffic between
         its LAN interface(s) and its WAN interface until the router has
         successfully completed the IPv6 address and the delegated
         prefix acquisition process.

   G-4:  By default, an IPv6 CE router that has no default router(s) on
         its WAN interface MUST NOT advertise itself as an IPv6 default
         router on its LAN interfaces.  That is, the "Router Lifetime"
         field is set to zero in all Router Advertisement messages it
         originates [RFC4861].

   G-5:  By default, if the IPv6 CE router is an advertising router and
         loses its IPv6 default router(s) and/or detects loss of
         connectivity on the WAN interface, it MUST explicitly
         invalidate itself as an IPv6 default router on each of its
         advertising interfaces by immediately transmitting one or more
         Router Advertisement messages with the "Router Lifetime" field
         set to zero [RFC4861].

4.2.  WAN-Side Configuration

   The IPv6 CE router will need to support connectivity to one or more
   access network architectures.  This document describes an IPv6 CE
   router that is not specific to any particular architecture or service
   provider and that supports all commonly used architectures.

   IPv6 Neighbor Discovery and DHCPv6 protocols operate over any type of
   IPv6-supported link layer, and there is no need for a link-layer-
   specific configuration protocol for IPv6 network-layer configuration
   options as in, e.g., PPP IP Control Protocol (IPCP) for IPv4.  This
   section makes the assumption that the same mechanism will work for
   any link layer, be it Ethernet, the Data Over Cable Service Interface
   Specification (DOCSIS), PPP, or others.

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   WAN-side requirements:

   W-1:  When the router is attached to the WAN interface link, it MUST
         act as an IPv6 host for the purposes of stateless [RFC4862] or
         stateful [RFC3315] interface address assignment.

   W-2:  The IPv6 CE router MUST generate a link-local address and
         finish Duplicate Address Detection according to [RFC4862] prior
         to sending any Router Solicitations on the interface.  The
         source address used in the subsequent Router Solicitation MUST
         be the link-local address on the WAN interface.

   W-3:  Absent other routing information, the IPv6 CE router MUST use
         Router Discovery as specified in [RFC4861] to discover a
         default router(s) and install a default route(s) in its routing
         table with the discovered router's address as the next hop.

   W-4:  The router MUST act as a requesting router for the purposes of
         DHCPv6 prefix delegation ([RFC3633]).

   W-5:  The IPv6 CE router MUST use a persistent DHCP Unique Identifier
         (DUID) for DHCPv6 messages.  The DUID MUST NOT change between
         network-interface resets or IPv6 CE router reboots.

   W-6:  The WAN interface of the CE router SHOULD support a Port
         Control Protocol (PCP) client as specified in [RFC6887] for use
         by applications on the CE router.  The PCP client SHOULD follow
         the procedure specified in Section 8.1 of [RFC6887] to discover
         its PCP server.  This document takes no position on whether
         such functionality is enabled by default or mechanisms by which
         users would configure the functionality.  Handling PCP requests
         from PCP clients in the LAN side of the CE router is out of
         scope.

   Link-layer requirements:

   WLL-1:  If the WAN interface supports Ethernet encapsulation, then
           the IPv6 CE router MUST support IPv6 over Ethernet [RFC2464].

   WLL-2:  If the WAN interface supports PPP encapsulation, the IPv6 CE
           router MUST support IPv6 over PPP [RFC5072].

   WLL-3:  If the WAN interface supports PPP encapsulation, in a dual-
           stack environment with IPCP and IPV6CP running over one PPP
           logical channel, the Network Control Protocols (NCPs) MUST be
           treated as independent of each other and start and terminate
           independently.

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   Address assignment requirements:

   WAA-1:   The IPv6 CE router MUST support Stateless Address
            Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) [RFC4862].

   WAA-2:   The IPv6 CE router MUST follow the recommendations in
            Section 4 of [RFC5942], and in particular the handling of
            the L flag in the Router Advertisement Prefix Information
            option.

   WAA-3:   The IPv6 CE router MUST support DHCPv6 [RFC3315] client
            behavior.

   WAA-4:   The IPv6 CE router MUST be able to support the following
            DHCPv6 options: Identity Association for Non-temporary
            Address (IA_NA), Reconfigure Accept [RFC3315], and
            DNS_SERVERS [RFC3646].  The IPv6 CE router SHOULD be able to
            support the DNS Search List (DNSSL) option as specified in
            [RFC3646].

   WAA-5:   The IPv6 CE router SHOULD implement the Network Time
            Protocol (NTP) as specified in [RFC5905] to provide a time
            reference common to the service provider for other
            protocols, such as DHCPv6, to use.  If the CE router
            implements NTP, it requests the NTP Server DHCPv6 option
            [RFC5908] and uses the received list of servers as primary
            time reference, unless explicitly configured otherwise.  LAN
            side support of NTP is out of scope for this document.

   WAA-6:   If the IPv6 CE router receives a Router Advertisement
            message (described in [RFC4861]) with the M flag set to 1,
            the IPv6 CE router MUST do DHCPv6 address assignment
            (request an IA_NA option).

   WAA-7:   If the IPv6 CE router does not acquire a global IPv6
            address(es) from either SLAAC or DHCPv6, then it MUST create
            a global IPv6 address(es) from its delegated prefix(es) and
            configure those on one of its internal virtual network
            interfaces, unless configured to require a global IPv6
            address on the WAN interface.

   WAA-8:   The CE router MUST support the SOL_MAX_RT option [RFC7083]
            and request the SOL_MAX_RT option in an Option Request
            Option (ORO).

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   WAA-9:   As a router, the IPv6 CE router MUST follow the weak host
            (Weak End System) model [RFC1122].  When originating packets
            from an interface, it will use a source address from another
            one of its interfaces if the outgoing interface does not
            have an address of suitable scope.

   WAA-10:  The IPv6 CE router SHOULD implement the Information Refresh
            Time option and associated client behavior as specified in
            [RFC4242].

   Prefix delegation requirements:

   WPD-1:  The IPv6 CE router MUST support DHCPv6 prefix delegation
           requesting router behavior as specified in [RFC3633]
           (Identity Association for Prefix Delegation (IA_PD) option).

   WPD-2:  The IPv6 CE router MAY indicate as a hint to the delegating
           router the size of the prefix it requires.  If so, it MUST
           ask for a prefix large enough to assign one /64 for each of
           its interfaces, rounded up to the nearest nibble, and SHOULD
           be configurable to ask for more.

   WPD-3:  The IPv6 CE router MUST be prepared to accept a delegated
           prefix size different from what is given in the hint.  If the
           delegated prefix is too small to address all of its
           interfaces, the IPv6 CE router SHOULD log a system management
           error.  [RFC6177] covers the recommendations for service
           providers for prefix allocation sizes.

   WPD-4:  By default, the IPv6 CE router MUST initiate DHCPv6 prefix
           delegation when either the M or O flags are set to 1 in a
           received Router Advertisement (RA) message.  Behavior of the
           CE router to use DHCPv6 prefix delegation when the CE router
           has not received any RA or received an RA with the M and the
           O bits set to zero is out of scope for this document.

   WPD-5:  Any packet received by the CE router with a destination
           address in the prefix(es) delegated to the CE router but not
           in the set of prefixes assigned by the CE router to the LAN
           must be dropped.  In other words, the next hop for the
           prefix(es) delegated to the CE router should be the null
           destination.  This is necessary to prevent forwarding loops
           when some addresses covered by the aggregate are not
           reachable [RFC4632].

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      (a)  The IPv6 CE router SHOULD send an ICMPv6 Destination
           Unreachable message in accordance with Section 3.1 of
           [RFC4443] back to the source of the packet, if the packet is
           to be dropped due to this rule.

   WPD-6:  If the IPv6 CE router requests both an IA_NA and an IA_PD
           option in DHCPv6, it MUST accept an IA_PD option in DHCPv6
           Advertise/Reply messages, even if the message does not
           contain any addresses, unless configured to only obtain its
           WAN IPv6 address via DHCPv6; see [DHCPv6-STATEFUL-ISSUES].

   WPD-7:  By default, an IPv6 CE router MUST NOT initiate any dynamic
           routing protocol on its WAN interface.

   WPD-8:  The IPv6 CE router SHOULD support the [RFC6603] Prefix
           Exclude option.

4.3.  LAN-Side Configuration

   The IPv6 CE router distributes configuration information obtained
   during WAN interface provisioning to IPv6 hosts and assists IPv6
   hosts in obtaining IPv6 addresses.  It also supports connectivity of
   these devices in the absence of any working WAN interface.

   An IPv6 CE router is expected to support an IPv6 end-user network and
   IPv6 hosts that exhibit the following characteristics:

   1.  Link-local addresses may be insufficient for allowing IPv6
       applications to communicate with each other in the end-user
       network.  The IPv6 CE router will need to enable this
       communication by providing globally scoped unicast addresses or
       ULAs [RFC4193], whether or not WAN connectivity exists.

   2.  IPv6 hosts should be capable of using SLAAC and may be capable of
       using DHCPv6 for acquiring their addresses.

   3.  IPv6 hosts may use DHCPv6 for other configuration information,
       such as the DNS_SERVERS option for acquiring DNS information.

   Unless otherwise specified, the following requirements apply to the
   IPv6 CE router's LAN interfaces only.

   ULA requirements:

   ULA-1:  The IPv6 CE router SHOULD be capable of generating a ULA
           prefix [RFC4193].

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   ULA-2:  An IPv6 CE router with a ULA prefix MUST maintain this prefix
           consistently across reboots.

   ULA-3:  The value of the ULA prefix SHOULD be configurable.

   ULA-4:  By default, the IPv6 CE router MUST act as a site border
           router according to Section 4.3 of [RFC4193] and filter
           packets with local IPv6 source or destination addresses
           accordingly.

   ULA-5:  An IPv6 CE router MUST NOT advertise itself as a default
           router with a Router Lifetime greater than zero whenever all
           of its configured and delegated prefixes are ULA prefixes.

   LAN requirements:

   L-1:   The IPv6 CE router MUST support router behavior according to
          Neighbor Discovery for IPv6 [RFC4861].

   L-2:   The IPv6 CE router MUST assign a separate /64 from its
          delegated prefix(es) (and ULA prefix if configured to provide
          ULA addressing) for each of its LAN interfaces.

   L-3:   An IPv6 CE router MUST advertise itself as a router for the
          delegated prefix(es) (and ULA prefix if configured to provide
          ULA addressing) using the "Route Information Option" specified
          in Section 2.3 of [RFC4191].  This advertisement is
          independent of having or not having IPv6 connectivity on the
          WAN interface.

   L-4:   An IPv6 CE router MUST NOT advertise itself as a default
          router with a Router Lifetime [RFC4861] greater than zero if
          it has no prefixes configured or delegated to it.

   L-5:   The IPv6 CE router MUST make each LAN interface an advertising
          interface according to [RFC4861].

   L-6:   In Router Advertisement messages ([RFC4861]), the Prefix
          Information option's A and L flags MUST be set to 1 by
          default.

   L-7:   The A and L flags' ([RFC4861]) settings SHOULD be user
          configurable.

   L-8:   The IPv6 CE router MUST support a DHCPv6 server capable of
          IPv6 address assignment according to [RFC3315] OR a stateless
          DHCPv6 server according to [RFC3736] on its LAN interfaces.

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   L-9:   Unless the IPv6 CE router is configured to support the DHCPv6
          IA_NA option, it SHOULD set the M flag to zero and the O flag
          to 1 in its Router Advertisement messages [RFC4861].

   L-10:  The IPv6 CE router MUST support providing DNS information in
          the DHCPv6 DNS_SERVERS and DOMAIN_LIST options [RFC3646].

   L-11:  The IPv6 CE router MUST support providing DNS information in
          the Router Advertisement Recursive DNS Server (RDNSS) and DNS
          Search List options.  Both options are specified in [RFC6106].

   L-12:  The IPv6 CE router SHOULD make available a subset of DHCPv6
          options (as listed in Section 5.3 of [RFC3736]) received from
          the DHCPv6 client on its WAN interface to its LAN-side DHCPv6
          server.

   L-13:  If the delegated prefix changes, i.e., the current prefix is
          replaced with a new prefix without any overlapping time
          period, then the IPv6 CE router MUST immediately advertise the
          old prefix with a Preferred Lifetime of zero and a Valid
          Lifetime of either a) zero or b) the lower of the current
          Valid Lifetime and two hours (which must be decremented in
          real time) in a Router Advertisement message as described in
          Section 5.5.3, (e) of [RFC4862].

   L-14:  The IPv6 CE router MUST send an ICMPv6 Destination Unreachable
          message, code 5 (Source address failed ingress/egress policy)
          for packets forwarded to it that use an address from a prefix
          that has been invalidated.

4.4.  Transition Technologies Support

4.4.1.  6rd

   6rd [RFC5969] specifies an automatic tunneling mechanism tailored to
   advance deployment of IPv6 to end users via a service provider's IPv4
   network infrastructure.  Key aspects include automatic IPv6 prefix
   delegation to sites, stateless operation, simple provisioning, and
   service that is equivalent to native IPv6 at the sites that are
   served by the mechanism.  It is expected that such traffic is
   forwarded over the CE router's native IPv4 WAN interface and not
   encapsulated in another tunnel.

   The CE router SHOULD support 6rd functionality.  If 6rd is supported,
   it MUST be implemented according to [RFC5969].  The following CE
   Requirements also apply:

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   6rd requirements:

   6RD-1:  The IPv6 CE router MUST support 6rd configuration via the 6rd
           DHCPv4 Option 212.  If the CE router has obtained an IPv4
           network address through some other means such as PPP, it
           SHOULD use the DHCPINFORM request message [RFC2131] to
           request the 6rd DHCPv4 Option.  The IPv6 CE router MAY use
           other mechanisms to configure 6rd parameters.  Such
           mechanisms are outside the scope of this document.

   6RD-2:  If the IPv6 CE router is capable of automated configuration
           of IPv4 through IPCP (i.e., over a PPP connection), it MUST
           support user-entered configuration of 6rd.

   6RD-3:  If the CE router supports configuration mechanisms other than
           the 6rd DHCPv4 Option 212 (user-entered, TR-069 [TR-069],
           etc.), the CE router MUST support 6rd in "hub and spoke"
           mode. 6rd in "hub and spoke" requires all IPv6 traffic to go
           to the 6rd Border Relay.  In effect, this requirement removes
           the "direct connect to 6rd" route defined in Section 7.1.1 of
           [RFC5969].

   6RD-4:  A CE router MUST allow 6rd and native IPv6 WAN interfaces to
           be active alone as well as simultaneously in order to support
           coexistence of the two technologies during an incremental
           migration period such as a migration from 6rd to native IPv6.

   6RD-5:  Each packet sent on a 6rd or native WAN interface MUST be
           directed such that its source IP address is derived from the
           delegated prefix associated with the particular interface
           from which the packet is being sent (Section 4.3 of
           [RFC3704]).

   6RD-6:  The CE router MUST allow different as well as identical
           delegated prefixes to be configured via each (6rd or native)
           WAN interface.

   6RD-7:  In the event that forwarding rules produce a tie between 6rd
           and native IPv6, by default, the IPv6 CE router MUST prefer
           native IPv6.

4.4.2.  Dual-Stack Lite (DS-Lite)

   Dual-Stack Lite [RFC6333] enables both continued support for IPv4
   services and incentives for the deployment of IPv6.  It also
   de-couples IPv6 deployment in the service provider network from the
   rest of the Internet, making incremental deployment easier.  Dual-
   Stack Lite enables a broadband service provider to share IPv4

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   addresses among customers by combining two well-known technologies:
   IP in IP (IPv4-in-IPv6) and Network Address Translation (NAT).  It is
   expected that DS-Lite traffic is forwarded over the CE router's
   native IPv6 WAN interface, and not encapsulated in another tunnel.

   The IPv6 CE router SHOULD implement DS-Lite functionality.  If
   DS-Lite is supported, it MUST be implemented according to [RFC6333].
   This document takes no position on simultaneous operation of Dual-
   Stack Lite and native IPv4.  The following CE router requirements
   also apply:

   WAN requirements:

   DLW-1:  The CE router MUST support configuration of DS-Lite via the
           DS-Lite DHCPv6 option [RFC6334].  The IPv6 CE router MAY use
           other mechanisms to configure DS-Lite parameters.  Such
           mechanisms are outside the scope of this document.

   DLW-2:  The IPv6 CE router MUST NOT perform IPv4 Network Address
           Translation (NAT) on IPv4 traffic encapsulated using DS-Lite.

   DLW-3:  If the IPv6 CE router is configured with an IPv4 address on
           its WAN interface, then the IPv6 CE router SHOULD disable the
           DS-Lite Basic Bridging BroadBand (B4) element.

4.5.  Security Considerations

   It is considered a best practice to filter obviously malicious
   traffic (e.g., spoofed packets, "Martian" addresses, etc.).  Thus,
   the IPv6 CE router ought to support basic stateless egress and
   ingress filters.  The CE router is also expected to offer mechanisms
   to filter traffic entering the customer network; however, the method
   by which vendors implement configurable packet filtering is beyond
   the scope of this document.

   Security requirements:

   S-1:  The IPv6 CE router SHOULD support [RFC6092].  In particular,
         the IPv6 CE router SHOULD support functionality sufficient for
         implementing the set of recommendations in [RFC6092],
         Section 4.  This document takes no position on whether such
         functionality is enabled by default or mechanisms by which
         users would configure it.

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   S-2:  The IPv6 CE router SHOULD support ingress filtering in
         accordance with BCP 38 [RFC2827].  Note that this requirement
         was downgraded from a MUST from RFC 6204 due to the difficulty
         of implementation in the CE router and the feature's redundancy
         with upstream router ingress filtering.

   S-3:  If the IPv6 CE router firewall is configured to filter incoming
         tunneled data, the firewall SHOULD provide the capability to
         filter decapsulated packets from a tunnel.

5.  Acknowledgements

   Thanks to the following people (in alphabetical order) for their
   guidance and feedback:

   Mikael Abrahamsson, Tore Anderson, Merete Asak, Rajiv Asati, Scott
   Beuker, Mohamed Boucadair, Rex Bullinger, Brian Carpenter, Tassos
   Chatzithomaoglou, Lorenzo Colitti, Remi Denis-Courmont, Gert Doering,
   Alain Durand, Katsunori Fukuoka, Brian Haberman, Tony Hain, Thomas
   Herbst, Ray Hunter, Joel Jaeggli, Kevin Johns, Erik Kline, Stephen
   Kramer, Victor Kuarsingh, Francois-Xavier Le Bail, Arifumi Matsumoto,
   David Miles, Shin Miyakawa, Jean-Francois Mule, Michael Newbery,
   Carlos Pignataro, John Pomeroy, Antonio Querubin, Daniel Roesen,
   Hiroki Sato, Teemu Savolainen, Matt Schmitt, David Thaler, Mark
   Townsley, Sean Turner, Bernie Volz, Dan Wing, Timothy Winters, James
   Woodyatt, Carl Wuyts, and Cor Zwart.

   This document is based in part on CableLabs' eRouter specification.
   The authors wish to acknowledge the additional contributors from the
   eRouter team:

   Ben Bekele, Amol Bhagwat, Ralph Brown, Eduardo Cardona, Margo Dolas,
   Toerless Eckert, Doc Evans, Roger Fish, Michelle Kuska, Diego
   Mazzola, John McQueen, Harsh Parandekar, Michael Patrick, Saifur
   Rahman, Lakshmi Raman, Ryan Ross, Ron da Silva, Madhu Sudan, Dan
   Torbet, and Greg White.

6.  Contributors

   The following people have participated as co-authors or provided
   substantial contributions to this document: Ralph Droms, Kirk
   Erichsen, Fred Baker, Jason Weil, Lee Howard, Jean-Francois Tremblay,
   Yiu Lee, John Jason Brzozowski, and Heather Kirksey.  Thanks to Ole
   Troan for editorship in the original RFC 6204 document.

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7.  References

7.1.  Normative References

   [RFC1122]  Braden, R., "Requirements for Internet Hosts -
              Communication Layers", STD 3, RFC 1122, October 1989.

   [RFC2119]  Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
              Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

   [RFC2131]  Droms, R., "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol", RFC
              2131, March 1997.

   [RFC2464]  Crawford, M., "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet
              Networks", RFC 2464, December 1998.

   [RFC2827]  Ferguson, P. and D. Senie, "Network Ingress Filtering:
              Defeating Denial of Service Attacks which employ IP Source
              Address Spoofing", BCP 38, RFC 2827, May 2000.

   [RFC3315]  Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C.,
              and M. Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for
              IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.

   [RFC3633]  Troan, O. and R. Droms, "IPv6 Prefix Options for Dynamic
              Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) version 6", RFC 3633,
              December 2003.

   [RFC3646]  Droms, R., "DNS Configuration options for Dynamic Host
              Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3646,
              December 2003.

   [RFC3704]  Baker, F. and P. Savola, "Ingress Filtering for Multihomed
              Networks", BCP 84, RFC 3704, March 2004.

   [RFC3736]  Droms, R., "Stateless Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
              (DHCP) Service for IPv6", RFC 3736, April 2004.

   [RFC4191]  Draves, R. and D. Thaler, "Default Router Preferences and
              More-Specific Routes", RFC 4191, November 2005.

   [RFC4193]  Hinden, R. and B. Haberman, "Unique Local IPv6 Unicast
              Addresses", RFC 4193, October 2005.

   [RFC4242]  Venaas, S., Chown, T., and B. Volz, "Information Refresh
              Time Option for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for
              IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 4242, November 2005.

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RFC 7084               IPv6 CE Router Requirements         November 2013

   [RFC4443]  Conta, A., Deering, S., and M. Gupta, "Internet Control
              Message Protocol (ICMPv6) for the Internet Protocol
              Version 6 (IPv6) Specification", RFC 4443, March 2006.

   [RFC4605]  Fenner, B., He, H., Haberman, B., and H. Sandick,
              "Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) / Multicast
              Listener Discovery (MLD)-Based Multicast Forwarding
              ("IGMP/MLD Proxying")", RFC 4605, August 2006.

   [RFC4632]  Fuller, V. and T. Li, "Classless Inter-domain Routing
              (CIDR): The Internet Address Assignment and Aggregation
              Plan", BCP 122, RFC 4632, August 2006.

   [RFC4779]  Asadullah, S., Ahmed, A., Popoviciu, C., Savola, P., and
              J. Palet, "ISP IPv6 Deployment Scenarios in Broadband
              Access Networks", RFC 4779, January 2007.

   [RFC4861]  Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman,
              "Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 4861,
              September 2007.

   [RFC4862]  Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6 Stateless
              Address Autoconfiguration", RFC 4862, September 2007.

   [RFC5072]  Varada, S., Haskins, D., and E. Allen, "IP Version 6 over
              PPP", RFC 5072, September 2007.

   [RFC5905]  Mills, D., Martin, J., Burbank, J., and W. Kasch, "Network
              Time Protocol Version 4: Protocol and Algorithms
              Specification", RFC 5905, June 2010.

   [RFC5908]  Gayraud, R. and B. Lourdelet, "Network Time Protocol (NTP)
              Server Option for DHCPv6", RFC 5908, June 2010.

   [RFC5942]  Singh, H., Beebee, W., and E. Nordmark, "IPv6 Subnet
              Model: The Relationship between Links and Subnet
              Prefixes", RFC 5942, July 2010.

   [RFC5969]  Townsley, W. and O. Troan, "IPv6 Rapid Deployment on IPv4
              Infrastructures (6rd) -- Protocol Specification", RFC
              5969, August 2010.

   [RFC6092]  Woodyatt, J., "Recommended Simple Security Capabilities in
              Customer Premises Equipment (CPE) for Providing
              Residential IPv6 Internet Service", RFC 6092, January
              2011.

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RFC 7084               IPv6 CE Router Requirements         November 2013

   [RFC6106]  Jeong, J., Park, S., Beloeil, L., and S. Madanapalli,
              "IPv6 Router Advertisement Options for DNS Configuration",
              RFC 6106, November 2010.

   [RFC6177]  Narten, T., Huston, G., and L. Roberts, "IPv6 Address
              Assignment to End Sites", BCP 157, RFC 6177, March 2011.

   [RFC6333]  Durand, A., Droms, R., Woodyatt, J., and Y. Lee, "Dual-
              Stack Lite Broadband Deployments Following IPv4
              Exhaustion", RFC 6333, August 2011.

   [RFC6334]  Hankins, D. and T. Mrugalski, "Dynamic Host Configuration
              Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6) Option for Dual-Stack Lite",
              RFC 6334, August 2011.

   [RFC6434]  Jankiewicz, E., Loughney, J., and T. Narten, "IPv6 Node
              Requirements", RFC 6434, December 2011.

   [RFC6603]  Korhonen, J., Savolainen, T., Krishnan, S., and O. Troan,
              "Prefix Exclude Option for DHCPv6-based Prefix
              Delegation", RFC 6603, May 2012.

   [RFC6887]  Wing, D., Cheshire, S., Boucadair, M., Penno, R., and P.
              Selkirk, "Port Control Protocol (PCP)", RFC 6887, April
              2013.

   [RFC7083]  Droms, R., "Modification to Default Values of SOL_MAX_RT
              and INF_MAX_RT", RFC 7083, November 2013.

7.2.  Informative References

   [DHCPv6-STATEFUL-ISSUES]
              Troan, O. and B. Volz, "Issues with multiple stateful
              DHCPv6 options", Work in Progress, May 2013.

   [MULTIHOMING-WITHOUT-NAT]
              Troan, O., Ed., Miles, D., Matsushima, S., Okimoto, T.,
              and D. Wing, "IPv6 Multihoming without Network Address
              Translation", Work in Progress, December 2010.

   [RFC6144]  Baker, F., Li, X., Bao, C., and K. Yin, "Framework for
              IPv4/IPv6 Translation", RFC 6144, April 2011.

   [TR-069]   Broadband Forum, "CPE WAN Management Protocol", TR-069
              Amendment 4, July 2011,
              <http://www.broadband-forum.org/technical/trlist.php>.

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   [UPnP-IGD] UPnP Forum, , "InternetGatewayDevice:2 Device Template
              Version 1.01", December 2010,
              <http://upnp.org/specs/gw/igd2/>.

Authors' Addresses

   Hemant Singh
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   1414 Massachusetts Ave.
   Boxborough, MA  01719
   USA

   Phone: +1 978 936 1622
   EMail: shemant@cisco.com
   URI:   http://www.cisco.com/

   Wes Beebee
   Cisco Systems, Inc.
   1414 Massachusetts Ave.
   Boxborough, MA  01719
   USA

   Phone: +1 978 936 2030
   EMail: wbeebee@cisco.com
   URI:   http://www.cisco.com/

   Chris Donley
   CableLabs
   858 Coal Creek Circle
   Louisville, CO  80027
   USA

   EMail: c.donley@cablelabs.com

   Barbara Stark
   AT&T
   1057 Lenox Park Blvd. NE
   Atlanta, GA  30319
   USA

   EMail: barbara.stark@att.com

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