Internet DRAFT - draft-chown-6man-tokenised-ipv6-identifiers
draft-chown-6man-tokenised-ipv6-identifiers
IPv6 Maintenance T. Chown
Internet-Draft University of Southampton
Intended status: Informational October 22, 2012
Expires: April 25, 2013
Tokenised IPv6 Identifiers
draft-chown-6man-tokenised-ipv6-identifiers-02
Abstract
This text is intended to open discussion towards the adoption of
support for tokenised IPv6 interface identifiers in IPv6 nodes. The
primary target for such support is server platforms where addresses
are usually manually configured, rather than using DHCPv6 or SLAAC.
By using tokenised identifiers, hosts can still determine their
network prefix by use of SLAAC, but more readily be automatically
renumbered should their network prefix change.
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
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material or to cite them other than as "work in progress."
This Internet-Draft will expire on April 25, 2013.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2012 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
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include Simplified BSD License text as described in Section 4.e of
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the Trust Legal Provisions and are provided without warranty as
described in the Simplified BSD License.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Tokenised IPv6 identifier support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
3. On the static address problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
4. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
5. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
6. IANA Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
7. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
8. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Author's Address . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
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1. Introduction
The usual choices for IPv6 nodes to obtain addresses are Stateless
Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) [RFC4862], DHCPv6 [RFC3315], or
manual configuration. Client devices generally use SLAAC or DHCPv6.
In the case of server systems, interface addresses are typically both
static and manually configured. SLAAC is not used in case the
interface hardware changes and the associated SLAAC generated address
changes with it. DHCPv6 is often not used due to concerns of server
stability should DHCPv6 fail.
The disadvantage with static addresses is that they are likely to
require manual editing should the network prefix in use change. If
instead there were a method to only manually configure the static
identifier part of the IPv6 address, then the address could be
automatically updated when a new prefix was introduced, as described
in [RFC4192] for example. In such cases a DNS server might be
configured with such a tokenised interface identifier of ::53, and
SLAAC would use the token in constructing the interface address,
using the advertised prefix.
2. Tokenised IPv6 identifier support
The author is aware of support for tokenised IPv6 identifiers in
Solaris, and of a proof of concept implementation for Linux.
Under Solaris, tokenised identifiers can be configured directly with
ifconfig, e.g.
ifconfig qfe0 inet6 token ::53/64
or the configuration can be made persistent by adding a line to the
appropriate /etc/hostname6.interface file.
In the Linux proof of concept implementation [Thompson05], a command
line can be used to configure the interface:
ip6token eth0 ::53
The specifics of how such tokenised identifiers are configured are
likely to be operating system dependent. The important point is that
such identifier configuration should be supported.
3. On the static address problem
This approach would address in part the problems discussed in
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[I-D.ietf-6renum-static-problem] in Sections 2.3 and 2.8, for the
address configuration of server systems.
While a broader solution for the management of static addresses is
desirable, tokenised identifiers present a useful interim step, if
vendors choose to support the concept.
4. Conclusions
It would be desirable if all potential IPv6 server platforms
supported tokenised interface identifiers. There may also be
benefits for other IPv6 nodes to do so.
The author welcomes feedback on this draft, and any comments on
platforms currently supporting such identifier configuration, or any
reasons why wider implementation should not be considered.
5. Security Considerations
There are no extra security consideration for this document.
6. IANA Considerations
There are no extra IANA consideration for this document.
7. Acknowledgments
The author thanks the 6NET project under which considerations of
tokenised identifiers was originally made, and colleague (at the
time) Mark Thompson for his proof of concept implementation of such
identifiers on a Linux platform.
8. Informative References
[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.
[RFC4192] Baker, F., Lear, E., and R. Droms, "Procedures for
Renumbering an IPv6 Network without a Flag Day", RFC 4192,
September 2005.
[RFC4862] Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6 Stateless
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Address Autoconfiguration", RFC 4862, September 2007.
[I-D.ietf-6renum-static-problem]
Carpenter, B. and S. Jiang, "Problem Statement for
Renumbering IPv6 Hosts with Static Addresses",
draft-ietf-6renum-static-problem-02 (work in progress),
September 2012.
[Thompson05]
Thompson, M., "Introducing IPv6 Tokenised Interface
Identifiers into the Linux Kernel", 2005, <http://
eprints.ecs.soton.ac.uk/11045/1/tokenisedlinux.pdf>.
Author's Address
Tim Chown
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton, Hampshire SO17 1BJ
United Kingdom
Email: tjc@ecs.soton.ac.uk
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