IPv6 Interface Identifiers | Understanding Ipv6

The last 64 bits of a currently defined IPv6 unicast address are the interface identifier that is unique to the 64-bit prefix of the IPv6 address. In IPv4, the host or node ID portion of an IPv4 address is a logical identifier of an interface on an IPv4 subnet. IPv4 host IDs are of variable length depending on the subnetting scheme and how many interfaces you want to allow on a given subnet. For example, with an 8-bit host ID, there were 2⁸- 2 or 254 possible host IDs (the all-zeros and all-ones combinations are reserved).

In IPv6, the interface ID is of fixed length. This length was not fixed at 64 bits to allow up to 2⁶⁴ possible hosts on the same subnet. Rather, the IPv6 interface ID is 64 bits long to accommodate the mapping of current 48-bit MAC addresses used by most LAN technologies such as Ethernet and the mapping of 64-bit MAC addresses of IEEE 1394 (also known as FireWire) and future LAN technologies.

The ways in which an interface identifier is determined are the following:

As defined in RFC 2373, all unicast addresses that use the prefixes 001 through 111 must also use a 64-bit interface identifier that is derived from the Extended Unique Identifier (EUI)-64 address. The 64-bit EUI-64 address is defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE). EUI-64 addresses are either assigned to a network adapter or derived from IEEE 802 addresses.
As defined in RFC 3041, it might have a temporarily assigned, randomly generated interface identifier to provide a level of anonymity.
It is assigned during stateful address autoconfiguration (for example, via Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol version 6 (DHCPv6)). Stateful address autoconfiguration standards and protocols are in progress.
As defined in RFC 2472, an interface identifier can be based on link-layer addresses or serial numbers, or randomly generated when configuring a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) interface and an EUI-64 address is not available.
It is assigned during manual address configuration.

EUI-64 Address-based Interface Identifiers

The most common way to derive an IPv6 interface identifier is through the EUI-64 address, a new type of MAC address for network adapters. To gain an understanding of EUI-64 addresses, it is useful to review the current MAC address format known as IEEE 802 addresses.

IEEE 802 Addresses

Network adapters for common LAN technologies such as Ethernet, Token Ring, and Fiber Data Distributed Interface (FDDI) use a 48-bit address called an IEEE 802 address. It consists of a 24-bit company ID (also called the manufacturer ID) and a 24-bit extension ID (also called the board ID). The combination of the company ID, which is uniquely assigned to each manufacturer of network adapters, and the extension ID, which is uniquely assigned to each network adapter at the time of manufacture, produces a globally unique 48-bit address. This 48-bit address is also called the physical, hardware, or media access control (MAC) address.

Figure 3-11 shows the structure of the 48-bit IEEE 802 address for Ethernet.

Figure 3-11. The structure of the 48-bit IEEE 802 address for Ethernet

Defined bits within the IEEE 802 address for Ethernet are:

Universal/Local (U/L) — The next-to-the low-order bit in the first byte is usedto indicate whether the address is universally or locally administered. If the U/L bit is set to 0, the IEEE (through the designation of a unique company ID) has administered the address. If the U/L bit is set to 1, the address is locally administered. In this case, the network administrator has overridden the manufactured address and specified a different address. The U/L bit is designated by the u in Figure 3-11.

Individual/Group (I/G) — The low-order bit of the first byte is used to indicate whether the address is an individual address (unicast) or a group address (multicast). When set to 0, the address is a unicast address. When set to 1, the address is a multicast address. The I/G bit is designated by the g in Figure 3-11.

For a typical 802.x network adapter address, both the U/L and I/G bits are set to 0, corresponding to a universally administered, unicast MAC address.

IEEE EUI-64 Addresses

The IEEE EUI-64 address represents a new standard for network interface addressing. The company ID is still 24-bits long, but the extension ID is 40 bits, creating a much larger address space for a network adapter manufacturer. The EUI-64 address uses the U/L and I/G bits in the same way as the IEEE 802 address.

Figure 3-12 shows the structure of the EUI-64 address.

Figure 3-12. The structure of the EUI-64 address

Mapping IEEE 802 Addresses to EUI-64 Addresses

To create an EUI-64 address from an IEEE 802 address, the 16 bits of 11111111 11111110 (0xFFFE) are inserted into the IEEE 802 address between the company ID and the extension ID, as shown in Figure 3-13.

Figure 3-13. The mapping of IEEE 802 addresses to EUI-64 addresses

Obtaining Interface Identifiers for IPv6 Addresses

To obtain the 64-bit interface identifier for IPv6 unicast addresses, the U/L bit in the EUI-64 address is complemented (if it is a 1 in the EUI-64 address, it is set to 0; and if it is a 0 in the EUI-64 address, it is set to 1).

The main reason for complementing the U/L bit is to provide greater compressibility of locally administered EUI-64 addresses. It is common practice when assigning locally administered addresses to number them in a simple way. For example, on a point-to-point link, you may assign one interface on the link the locally administered EUI-64 address of 02-00-00-00-00-00-00-01 and the other interface the locally administered EUI-64 address of 02-00-00-00-00-00-00-02. If the U/L bit is not complemented, the corresponding link-local addresses for these two interfaces become FE80::200:0:0:1 and FE80::200:0:0:2. By complementing the U/L bit, the corresponding link-local addresses for these two interfaces become FE80::1 and FE80::2.

Figure 3-14 shows the conversion of an EUI-64 address to an IPv6 interface identifier.

Figure 3-14. The conversion of an EUI-64 address to an IPv6 interface identifier

Because the U/L bit is complemented when converting an EUI-64 address to an IPv6 interface identifier, the resulting bit in the IPv6 interface identifier has the opposite interpretation of the IEEE-defined U/L bit. If the seventh bit of the IPv6 interface identifier is set to 0, it is locally administered. If the seventh bit of the IPv6 interface identifier is set to 1, it is universally administered.

Converting IEEE 802 Addresses to IPv6 Interface Identifiers

To obtain an IPv6 interface identifier from an IEEE 802 address, you must first map the IEEE 802 address to an EUI-64 address, and then complement the U/L bit. Figure 3-15 shows this conversion process for a universally administered, unicast IEEE 802 address.

Figure 3-15. The conversion of an IEEE 802 address to an IPv6 interface identifier

IEEE 802 Address Conversion Example

Host A has the Ethernet MAC address of 00-AA-00-3F-2A-1C. First, it is converted to EUI-64 format by inserting FF-FE between the third and fourth bytes, yielding 00-AA-00-FF-FE-3F-2A-1C. Then, the U/L bit, which is the seventh bit in the first byte, is complemented. The first byte in binary form is 00000000. When the seventh bit is complemented, it becomes 00000010 (0x02). The final result is 02-AA-00-FF-FE-3F-2A-1C which, when converted to colon hexadecimal notation, becomes the interface identifier 2AA:FF:FE3F: 2A1C. As a result, the link-local address that corresponds to the network adapter with the MAC address of 00-AA-00-3F-2A-1C is FE80::2AA:FF:FE3F:2A1C.

When complementing the U/L bit, add 0x2 to the first byte if the EUI-64 address is universally administered, and subtract 0x2 from the first byte if the EUI-64 address is locally administered.

Temporary Address Interface Identifiers

In today's IPv4-based Internet, a typical Internet user dials an ISP and obtains an IPv4 address using PPP and the Internet Protocol Control Protocol (IPCP). Each time the user dials, a different IPv4 address might be obtained. Therefore, it is not easy to track a dial-up user's traffic on the Internet based on the user's IP address.

For IPv6-based dial-up connections, the user is assigned a 64-bit prefix, at the time of connection, by using router discovery, an exchange of Router Solicitation and Router Advertisement messages. If the interface identifier is always based on the EUI-64 address (as derived from the static IEEE 802 address), it is possible to identify the traffic of a specific node regardless of the prefix assigned at the time of connection. The use of the same 64-bit interface identifier allows identification of a user's traffic whether they are accessing the Internet from home or from work. This makes it easy for Internet merchants and malicious users to track a specific user and their use of the Internet.

To address this concern to provide the same level of anonymity as that provided with IPv4, an alternative derivation of the IPv6 interface identifier that is randomly generated and changes over time is discussed in RFC 3041.

The initial interface identifier is generated using random number techniques. For IPv6 systems that do not have the ability to store any history information for generating future values of the interface identifier, a new random interface identifier is generated each time the IPv6 protocol is initialized. For IPv6 systems that do have storage capabilities, a history value is stored and when the IPv6 protocol is initialized, a new interface identifier is created through the following process:

Retrieve the history value from storage and append the interface identifier based on the EUI-64 address of the adapter.
Compute the Message Digest-5 (MD5) hash over the quantity in step 1. The MD5 hash computation will produce a 128-bit value.
Store the low-order 64 bits of the MD5 hash computed in step 2 as the history value for the next computation of the interface identifier.
Take the high-order 64 bits of the MD5 hash computed in step 2 and set the seventh bit to zero. The seventh bit corresponds to the U/L bit, which, when set to 0, indicates a locally administered interface identifier. The result is the interface identifier.

The resulting IPv6 address, based on this random interface identifier, is known as a temporary address. Temporary addresses are generated for public address prefixes that use stateless address autoconfiguration. Temporary addresses are used for the lower of the following values of the valid and preferred lifetimes:

The lifetimes included in the Prefix Information option in the received Router Advertisement message.
Local default values of 1 week for valid lifetime and 1 day for preferred lifetime.

After the temporary address valid lifetime expires, a new interface identifier and temporary address is generated. For more information about router discovery, see Chapter 6, "Neighbor Discovery." For more information about stateless address autoconfiguration and valid and preferred lifetimes, see Chapter 8, "Address Autoconfiguration."