Sybex CCNA 640-802 Chapter 13: IPv6

Instructor & Todd Lammle

Chapter 13 Objectives

The CCNA Topics Covered in this chapter include:

• What is IPv6?• Why do we need IPv6?• IPv6 Addressing• Address types• Special Addresses• Autoconfiguration• Configuring IPv6• Tunneling

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What is IPv6?

People refer to IPv6 as “the next-generation Internet protocol,” and it was originally created as the answer to IPv4’s inevitable, looming address-exhaustion crisis.

Though you’ve probably heard a thing or two about IPv6 already, it has been improved even further in the quest to bring us the flexibility, efficiency, capability, and optimized functionality that can truly meet our ever-increasing needs.

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Why do we need IPv6?

• Because we need to communicate, and our current system isn’t really cutting it anymore—kind of like how the Pony Express can’t compete with airmail. Just look at how much time and effort we’ve invested in coming up with slick new ways to conserve bandwidth and IP addresses.

• The amount of people and devices that connect to networks increases each and every day.

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IPv6 Addressing

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IPv6 addresses are 128 bits

Shortened Expression

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You can actually leave out parts of the address to abbreviate it, but to get away with doing that you have to follow a couple of rules. First, you can drop any leading zeros in each of the individual blocks. After you do that, the sample address from earlier would then look like this:

2001:db8:3c4d:12:0:0:1234:56ab

Okay, that’s a definite improvement—at least we don’t have to write all of those extra zeros! But what about whole blocks that don’t have anything in them except zeros? Well, we can kind of lose those too—at least some of them. Again referring to our sample address, we can remove the two blocks of zeros by replacing them with double colons, like this:

2001:db8:3c4d:12::1234:56ab

Address Types

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• Unicast: 1-1

• Global Unicast

• Link-local: private address

• Unique Local: globally unique

• Multicast: 1-many

• Anycast: 1-one of many

Special Addresses

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0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0 Equals ::. This is the equivalent of IPv4’s 0.0.0.0, and is typically the source address of a host when you’re using stateful configuration.

0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 Loopback testEquals ::1. The equivalent of 127.0.0.1 in IPv4.

0:0:0:0:0:0:192.168.100.1This is how an IPv4 address would be written in a mixed IPv6/IPv4 network environment.

2000::/3The global unicast address range.

FC00::/7The unique local unicast range.

FE80::/10The link-local unicast range.

Special Addresses Cont.

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FF00::/8The multicast range.

3FFF:FFFF::/32 Reserved for examples and documentation.

2001:0DB8::/32 Also reserved for examples and documentation.

2002::/16Used with 6to4, which is the transition system—the structure that allows IPv6 packets to be transmitted over an IPv4 network without the need to configure explicit tunnels.

Autoconfiguration

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RS: Router SolicitationRA: Router Advertisement

Configuring IPv6

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In order to enable IPv6 on a router, you have to use the ipv6 unicast-routing global configuration command:

Corp(config)#ipv6 unicast-routing

IPv6 isn’t enabled by default on any interfaces either, so we have to go to each interface individually and enable it. You use the interface configuration command ipv6 address <ipv6prefix>/<prefix-length> [eui-64]to get this done.

Here’s an example:

Corp(config-if)#ipv6 address 2001:db8:3c4d:1:0260.d6FF.FE73.1987/64

You can specify the entire 128-bit global IPv6 address or you can use the eui-64 option. Remember, the eui-64 format allows the device to use its MAC address and pad it to make the interface ID.

Corp(config-if)#ipv6 address 2001:db8:3c4d:1::/64 eui-64

Tunneling 6to4

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Written Labs and Review Questions

– Open your books and go through all the written labs and the review questions.

– Review the answers in class.

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