Internet Engineering Task Force Jun-ichiro itojun Hagino INTERNET-DRAFT IIJ Research Laboratory Expires: February 17, 2001 August 17, 2000 Guidelines for IPv6 local experiments draft-itojun-ipv6-local-experiment-00.txt Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. 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.'' The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. To view the list Internet-Draft Shadow Directories, see http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. Distribution of this memo is unlimited. The internet-draft will expire in 6 months. The date of expiration will be February 17, 2001. Abstract The memo defines how a (IPv6-wise) disconnected network should conduct local IPv6 experiment. The document tries to give guidelines for novice IPv6 experimenters, and tries to help them from falling into common pitfalls. 1. Problem space There are potential IPv6 users who would like to perform experiments locally, in their IPv6 network disjoint from the worldwide IPv6 network at large (or 6bone). Site-local address [Hinden, 1998] could be used where appropriate. However, site-local address has several operational differences from global address (like below), and it is harder for novice users to configure site-local address right than global address. Also, due to the differences, some of the things the user learnt from local experiments may not be directly relevant when they get connected to the HAGINO Expires: February 17, 2001 [Page 1] DRAFT IPv6 local experiments August 2000 worldwide IPv6 network - it reduces usefulness of their local experiments. o Site-local addresses are "scoped" address, while global addresses are not. o Configuration must correctly identify site border routers. This is an additional requirement. o There are proposals on scoped routing exist [Deering, 2000] , however, implementation status is still rather disappointing. For experiments over single link, link-local address could be used. However, again, link-local address is a scoped address, and has radical operational differences from global IPv6 (or IPv4) address. 2. Recommendations First of all, do not cook up IPv6 prefix on your own. You cannot pick random prefix number, that can jeopadize the whole point of experiment. Next, it is recommended to use global addresses for early stage of experiments. As presented in the previous section, scoped (site- local/link-local) IPv6 addresses have different operational characteritics from global IPv6 addresses. In the later stage of experients, you may want to play with scoped addresses, and try to understand how they behave. 2.1. A site with 6bone site/IPv6 ISP nearby If it is possible, try to contact nearest upstream 6bone site, or upstream ISP, to give you an IPv6 prefix. By getting IPv6 address space properly, the site will have less problem when they get conneted to the worldwide IPv6 network. The address space can (supposedly) be used for future IPv6 upstream connectivity. 2.2. A site with global IPv4 connectivity Whenever the site has a global IPv4 address with it, the site should use the 6to4 IPv6 address prefix [Carpenter, 2000] derived from the IPv4 address space, for local experiments. The prefix will be 2002:xxyy:zzuu::/48, where "xxyy:zzuu" is a hexadecimal notation of an IPv4 global address that belongs to the site. For detailed discussion, please refer to 6to4 document. 2.3. Completely disconnected site If the site has no permanent global IPv4 address with it (like dialup customer site), the site has two choices. HAGINO Expires: February 17, 2001 [Page 2] DRAFT IPv6 local experiments August 2000 o The site may use site local address space. The operation needs great care as presented above. o The site may use the address prefix: 3ffe:0501:ffff::/48. The address prefix was curved out from WIDE 6bone prefix. The site MUST be renumbered, before the site gets connected to the worldwide IPv6 network. In both cases, the assigned prefix MUST NOT be advertised to the worldwide IPv6 network, from anywhere. 2.4. Other comments If there are multiple administrative domains in the site, the site is responsible for its internal coordination (the draft cannot solve your local politics). 3. Security considerations The document talks about no security issues. References Hinden, 1998. R. Hinden and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture" in RFC2373 (July 1998). ftp://ftp.isi.edu/in-notes/rfc2373.txt. Deering, 2000. S. Deering, B. Haberman, and B. Zill, ""IP Version 6 Scoped Address Architecture"," internet draft (March 2000). work in progress material. Carpenter, 2000. Brian Carpenter and Keith Moore, "Connection of IPv6 Domains via IPv4 Clouds without Explicit Tunnels" in draft-ietf-ngtrans-6to4-06.txt (June 2000). work in progress. Change history None. Acknowledgements The draft was written based on discussions with Japanese IPv6 users, and help from WIDE research group. HAGINO Expires: February 17, 2001 [Page 3] DRAFT IPv6 local experiments August 2000 Author's address Jun-ichiro itojun HAGINO Research Laboratory, Internet Initiative Japan Inc. Takebashi Yasuda Bldg., 3-13 Kanda Nishiki-cho, Chiyoda-ku,Tokyo 101-0054, JAPAN Tel: +81-3-5259-6350 Fax: +81-3-5259-6351 Email: itojun@iijlab.net HAGINO Expires: February 17, 2001 [Page 4]