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IETF RFC 6964
Last modified on Friday, May 31st, 2013
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Independent Submission F. Templin
Request for Comments: 6964 Boeing Research & Technology
Category: Informational May 2013
ISSN: 2070-1721
Operational Guidance for IPv6 Deployment in IPv4 Sites Using the
Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP)
 Abstract
Many end-user sites in the Internet today still have predominantly
IPv4 internal infrastructures. These sites range in size from small
home/office networks to large corporate enterprise networks, but
share the commonality that IPv4 provides satisfactory internal
routing and addressing services for most applications. As more and
more IPv6-only services are deployed, however, end-user devices
within such sites will increasingly require at least basic IPv6
functionality. This document therefore provides operational guidance
for deployment of IPv6 within predominantly IPv4 sites using the
Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP).
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This is a contribution to the RFC Series, independently of any other
RFC stream. The RFC Editor has chosen to publish this document at
its discretion and makes no statement about its value for
implementation or deployment. Documents approved for publication by
the RFC Editor are not 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/RFC 6964.
Templin Informational PAGE 1 
RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 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.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
2. Enabling IPv6 Services Using ISATAP . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
3. SLAAC Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.1. Advertising ISATAP Router Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . 5
3.2. ISATAP Host Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
3.3. Reference Operational Scenario - Shared Prefix Model . . 6
3.4. Reference Operational Scenario - Individual Prefix Model 9
3.5. SLAAC Site Administration Guidance . . . . . . . . . . . 12
3.6. Loop Avoidance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.7. Considerations for Compatibility of Interface Identifiers 14
4. Manual Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
5. Scaling Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
6. Site Renumbering Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
7. Path MTU Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
8. Alternative Approaches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
9. Security Considerations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
10. Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11. References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.1. Normative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
11.2. Informative References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
1. Introduction
End-user sites in the Internet today internally use IPv4 routing and
addressing for core operating functions, such as web browsing, file
sharing, network printing, email, teleconferencing, and numerous
other site-internal networking services. Such sites typically have
an abundance of public and/or private IPv4 addresses for internal
networking and are separated from the public Internet by firewalls,
packet filtering gateways, proxies, address translators, and other
site-border demarcation devices. To date, such sites have had little
incentive to enable IPv6 services internally [RFC 1687].
End-user sites that currently use IPv4 services internally come in
endless sizes and varieties. For example, a home network behind a
Network Address Translator (NAT) may consist of a single link
supporting a few laptops, printers, etc. As a larger example, a
small business may consist of one or a few offices with several
networks connecting considerably larger numbers of computers,
routers, handheld devices, printers, faxes, etc. Moving further up
the scale, large financial institutions, major retailers, large
corporations, etc., may consist of hundreds or thousands of branches
worldwide that are tied together in a complex global enterprise
network. Additional examples include personal-area networks, mobile
vehicular networks, disaster relief networks, tactical military
networks, various forms of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs), etc.
With the proliferation of IPv6 services, however, existing IPv4 sites
will increasingly require a means for enabling IPv6 services so that
hosts within the site can communicate with IPv6-only correspondents.
Such services must be deployable with minimal configuration and in a
fashion that will not cause disruptions to existing IPv4 services.
The Intra-Site Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP)
[RFC 5214] provides a simple-to-use service that sites can deploy in
the near term to meet these requirements.
ISATAP has also often been mentioned with respect to IPv6 deployment
in enterprise networks [RFC 4057] [RFC 4852] [ENT-IPv6]. ISATAP can
therefore be considered as an IPv6 solution alternative based on
candidate enterprise network characteristics.
This document provides operational guidance for using ISATAP to
enable IPv6 services within predominantly IPv4 sites while causing no
disruptions to existing IPv4 services. The terminology of ISATAP
(see [RFC 5214], Section 3) applies also to this document.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
2. Enabling IPv6 Services Using ISATAP
Existing sites within the Internet will soon need to enable IPv6
services. Larger sites typically obtain provider-independent IPv6
prefixes from an Internet registry and advertise the prefixes into
the IPv6 routing system on their own behalf, i.e., they act as an
Internet Service Provider (ISP) unto themselves. Smaller sites that
wish to enable IPv6 can arrange to obtain public IPv6 prefixes from
an ISP, where the prefixes may be either purely native or the near-
native prefixes offered by the IPv6 Rapid Deployment on IPv4 (6rd)
[RFC 5969]. Alternatively, the site can obtain prefixes independently
of an ISP, e.g., via a tunnel broker [RFC 3053], by using one of its
public IPv4 addresses to form a 6to4 prefix [RFC 3056], etc. In any
case, after obtaining IPv6 prefixes, the site can automatically
enable IPv6 services internally by configuring ISATAP.
The ISATAP service uses a Non-Broadcast, Multiple Access (NBMA)
tunnel virtual interface model [RFC 2491] [RFC 2529] based on IPv6-in-
IPv4 encapsulation [RFC 4213]. The encapsulation format can further
use Differentiated Services (DS) [RFC 2983] and Explicit Congestion
Notification (ECN) [RFC 3168] mapping between the inner and outer IP
headers to ensure expected per-hop behavior within well-managed
sites.
The ISATAP service is based on two node types known as advertising
ISATAP routers and ISATAP hosts. (While out of scope for this
document, a third node type known as non-advertising ISATAP routers
is defined in [ISATAP-UPDATE].) Each node may further have multiple
ISATAP interfaces (i.e., one interface for each site) and may act as
an advertising ISATAP router on some of those interfaces and a simple
ISATAP host on others. Hence, the node type is considered on a per-
interface basis.
Advertising ISATAP routers configure their ISATAP interfaces as
advertising router interfaces (see [RFC 4861], Section 6.2.2). ISATAP
hosts configure their ISATAP interfaces as simple host interfaces and
also coordinate their autoconfiguration operations with advertising
ISATAP routers. In this sense, advertising ISATAP routers are
"servers" while ISATAP hosts are "clients" in the service model.
Advertising ISATAP routers arrange to add their IPv4 addresses to the
site's Potential Router List (PRL) so that ISATAP clients can
discover them, as discussed in Sections 8.3.2 and 9 of [RFC 5214].
Alternatively, site administrators could include IPv4 anycast
addresses in the PRL and assign each such address to multiple
advertising ISATAP routers. In that case, IPv4 routing within the
site would direct the ISATAP client to the nearest advertising ISATAP
router.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
After the PRL is published, ISATAP clients within the site can
automatically perform unicast IPv6 Neighbor Discovery Router
Solicitation (RS) / Router Advertisement (RA) exchanges with
advertising ISATAP routers using IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation [RFC 4861]
[RFC 5214]. In the exchange, the IPv4 source address of the RS and
the destination address of the RA are an IPv4 address of the client,
while the IPv4 destination address of the RS and the source address
of the RA are an IPv4 address of a server found in the PRL.
Similarly, the IPv6 source address of the RS is a link-local ISATAP
address that embeds the client's IPv4 address, while the source
address of the RA is a link-local ISATAP address that embeds the
server's IPv4 address. (The destination addresses of the RS and RA
may be either the neighbor's link-local ISATAP address or a link-
scoped multicast address, depending on the implementation.)
Following router discovery, ISATAP clients can configure and assign
IPv6 addresses and/or prefixes using Stateless Address
AutoConfiguration (SLAAC) [RFC 4862] [RFC 5214]. While out of scope
for this document, use of the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for
IPv6 (DHCPv6) [RFC 3315] is also possible, pending future updates (see
[ISATAP-UPDATE]).
3. SLAAC Services
Predominantly IPv4 sites can enable SLAAC services for ISATAP clients
that need to communicate with IPv6 correspondents. SLAAC services
are enabled using either the "shared" or "individual" prefix model.
In the shared prefix model, all advertising ISATAP routers advertise
a common prefix (e.g., 2001:db8::/64) to ISATAP clients within the
site. In the individual prefix model, advertising ISATAP router
advertise individual prefixes (e.g., 2001:db8:0:1::/64,
2001:db8:0:2::/64, 2001:db8:0:3::/64, etc.) to ISATAP clients within
the site. Note that combinations of the shared and individual prefix
models are also possible, in which some of the site's ISATAP routers
advertise shared prefixes and others advertise individual prefixes.
The following sections discuss operational considerations for
enabling ISATAP SLAAC services within predominantly IPv4 sites.
3.1. Advertising ISATAP Router Behavior
Advertising ISATAP routers that support SLAAC services send RA
messages in response to RS messages received on an advertising ISATAP
interface. SLAAC services are enabled when advertising ISATAP
routers advertise non-link-local IPv6 prefixes in the Prefix
Information Options (PIOs) with the A flag set to 1 [RFC 4861]. When
there are multiple advertising ISATAP routers, the routers can
advertise a shared IPv6 prefix or individual IPv6 prefixes.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
3.2. ISATAP Host Behavior
ISATAP hosts resolve the PRL and send RS messages to obtain RA
messages from an advertising ISATAP router. When the host receives
RA messages, it uses SLAAC to configure IPv6 addresses from any
advertised prefixes with the A flag set to 1 as specified in
[RFC 4862] and [RFC 5214], then it assigns the addresses to the ISATAP
interface. The host also assigns any of the advertised prefixes with
the L flag set to 1 to the ISATAP interface. (Note that the IPv6
link-local prefix fe80::/64 is always considered on-link on an ISATAP
interface.)
3.3. Reference Operational Scenario - Shared Prefix Model
Figure 1 depicts an example ISATAP network topology for allowing
hosts within a predominantly IPv4 site to configure ISATAP services
using SLAAC with the shared prefix model. The example shows two
advertising ISATAP routers ('A', 'B'), two ISATAP hosts ('C', 'D'),
and an ordinary IPv6 host ('E') outside of the site in a typical
deployment configuration. In this model, routers 'A' and 'B' both
advertise the same (shared) IPv6 prefix 2001:db8::/64 into the IPv6
routing system, and also advertise the prefix in the RA messages they
send to ISATAP clients.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
.-(::::::::) 2001:db8:1::1
.-(::: IPv6 :::)-. +-------------+
(:::: Internet ::::) | IPv6 Host E |
`-(::::::::::::)-' +-------------+
`-(::::::)-'
,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,
,----|companion gateway|--.
/ '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~' :
/ |.
,-' `.
; +------------+ +------------+ )
: | Router A | | Router B | /
: | (isatap) | | (isatap) | :
: | 192.0.2.1 | | 192.0.2.1 | ;
+ +------------+ +------------+ \
fe80::*:192.0.2.1 fe80::*:192.0.2.1
| 2001:db8::/64 2001:db8::/64 |
| ;
: IPv4 Site -+-'
`-. (PRL: 192.0.2.1) .)
\ _)
`-----+--------)----+'----'
fe80::*:192.0.2.18 fe80::*:192.0.2.34
2001:db8::*:192.0.2.18 2001:db8::*:192.0.2.34
+--------------+ +--------------+
| 192.0.2.18 | | 192.0.2.34 |
| (isatap) | | (isatap) |
| Host C | | Host D |
+--------------+ +--------------+
(* == "0000:5efe", i.e., the organizational unique code for ISATAP,
per Section 6.1 of [RFC 5214])
Figure 1: Example ISATAP Network Topology Using Shared Prefix Model
With reference to Figure 1, advertising ISATAP routers 'A' and 'B'
within the IPv4 site connect to the IPv6 Internet either directly or
via a companion gateway. The routers advertise the shared prefix
2001:db8::/64 into the IPv6 Internet routing system either as a
singleton /64 or as part of a shorter aggregated IPv6 prefix. For
the purpose of this example, we also assume that the IPv4 site is
configured within multiple IPv4 subnets -- each with an IPv4 prefix
length of /28.
Advertising ISATAP routers 'A' and 'B' both configure the IPv4
anycast address 192.0.2.1 on a site-interior IPv4 interface, then
configure an advertising ISATAP router interface for the site with
link-local ISATAP address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.1. The site
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
administrator then places the single IPv4 address 192.0.2.1 in the
site's PRL. 'A' and 'B' then both advertise the anycast address/
prefix into the site's IPv4 routing system so that ISATAP clients can
locate the router that is topologically closest. (Note: advertising
ISATAP routers can also use individual IPv4 unicast addresses instead
of, or in addition to, a shared IPv4 anycast address. In that case,
the PRL will contain multiple IPv4 addresses of advertising routers
-- some of which may be anycast and others unicast.)
ISATAP host 'C' connects to the site via an IPv4 interface with
address 192.0.2.18/28 and also configures an ISATAP host interface
with link-local ISATAP address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.18 over the IPv4
interface. 'C' next resolves the PRL and sends an RS message to the
IPv4 address 192.0.2.1, where IPv4 routing will direct it to the
closest of either 'A' or 'B'. Assuming 'A' is closest, 'C' receives
an RA from 'A' then configures a default IPv6 route with next-hop
address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.1 via the ISATAP interface and processes
the IPv6 prefix 2001:db8::/64 advertised in the PIO. If the A flag
is set in the PIO, 'C' uses SLAAC to automatically configure the IPv6
address 2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.18 (i.e., an address with an ISATAP
interface identifier) and assigns it to the ISATAP interface. If the
L flag is set, 'C' also assigns the prefix 2001:db8::/64 to the
ISATAP interface, and the IPv6 address becomes a true ISATAP address.
In the same fashion, ISATAP host 'D' configures its IPv4 interface
with address 192.0.2.34/28 and configures its ISATAP interface with
link-local ISATAP address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.34. 'D' next performs
an RS/RA exchange that is serviced by 'B', then uses SLAAC to
autoconfigure the address 2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.34 and a default
IPv6 route with next-hop address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.1. Finally, IPv6
host 'E' connects to an IPv6 network outside of the site. 'E'
configures its IPv6 interface in a manner specific to its attached
IPv6 link and autoconfigures the IPv6 address 2001:db8:1::1.
Following this autoconfiguration, when host 'C' inside the site has
an IPv6 packet to send to host 'E' outside the site, it prepares the
packet with source address 2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.18 and destination
address 2001:db8:1::1. 'C' then uses IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation to
forward the packet to the IPv4 address 192.0.2.1, which will be
directed to 'A' based on IPv4 routing. 'A' in turn decapsulates the
packet and forwards it into the public IPv6 Internet, where it will
be conveyed to 'E' via normal IPv6 routing. In the same fashion,
host 'D' uses IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation via its default router 'B'
to send IPv6 packets to IPv6 Internet hosts such as 'E'.
When host 'E' outside the site sends IPv6 packets to ISATAP host 'C'
inside the site, the IPv6 routing system may direct the packet to
either 'A' or 'B'. If the site is not partitioned internally, the
Templin Informational PAGE 8
RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
router that receives the packet can use ISATAP to statelessly forward
the packet directly to 'C'. If the site may be partitioned
internally, however, the packet must first be forwarded to 'C's
serving router based on IPv6 routing information. This implies that,
in a partitioned site, the advertising ISATAP routers must connect
within a full or partial mesh of IPv6 links, and they must either run
a dynamic IPv6 routing protocol or configure static routes so that
incoming IPv6 packets can be forwarded to the correct serving router.
In this example, 'A' can configure the IPv6 route
2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.32/124 with the IPv6 address of the next hop
toward 'B' in the mesh network as the next hop, and 'B' can configure
the IPv6 route 2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.16/124 with the IPv6 address of
the next hop toward 'A' as the next hop. (Notice that the /124
prefixes properly cover the /28 prefix of the IPv4 address that is
embedded within the IPv6 address.) In that case, when 'A' receives a
packet from the IPv6 Internet with destination address
2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.34, it first forwards the packet toward 'B'
over an IPv6 mesh link. 'B' in turn uses ISATAP to forward the
packet into the site, where IPv4 routing will direct it to 'D'. In
the same fashion, when 'B' receives a packet from the IPv6 Internet
with destination address 2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.18, it first forwards
the packet toward 'A' over an IPv6 mesh link. 'A' then uses ISATAP
to forward the packet into the site, where IPv4 routing will direct
it to 'C'.
Finally, when host 'C' inside the site connects to host 'D' inside
the site, it has the option of using the native IPv4 service or the
ISATAP IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation service. When there is operational
assurance that IPv4 services between the two hosts are available, the
hosts may be better served to continue to use legacy IPv4 services in
order to avoid encapsulation overhead and to avoid communication
failures due to middleboxes in the path that filter protocol-41
packets [RFC 4213]. If 'C' and 'D' could be in different IPv4 network
partitions, however, IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation should be used with
one or both of routers 'A' and 'B' serving as intermediate gateways.
3.4. Reference Operational Scenario - Individual Prefix Model
Figure 2 depicts an example ISATAP network topology for allowing
hosts within a predominantly IPv4 site to configure ISATAP services
using SLAAC with the individual prefix model. The example shows two
advertising ISATAP routers ('A', 'B'), two ISATAP hosts ('C', 'D'),
and an ordinary IPv6 host ('E') outside of the site in a typical
deployment configuration. In the figure, ISATAP routers 'A' and 'B'
both advertise different prefixes taken from the aggregated prefix
2001:db8::/48, with 'A' advertising 2001:db8:0:1::/64 and 'B'
advertising 2001:db8:0:2::/64.
Templin Informational PAGE 9
RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
.-(::::::::) 2001:db8:1::1
.-(::: IPv6 :::)-. +-------------+
(:::: Internet ::::) | IPv6 Host E |
`-(::::::::::::)-' +-------------+
`-(::::::)-'
,~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~,
,----|companion gateway|--.
/ '~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~' :
/ |.
,-' `.
; +------------+ +------------+ )
: | Router A | | Router B | /
: | (isatap) | | (isatap) | :
: | 192.0.2.17 | | 192.0.2.33 | ;
+ +------------+ +------------+ \
fe80::*:192.0.2.17 fe80::*:192.0.2.33
2001:db8:0:1::/64 2001:db8:0:2::/64
| ;
: IPv4 Site -+-'
`-. (PRL: 192.0.2.1) .)
\ _)
`-----+--------)----+'----'
fe80::*:192.0.2.18 fe80::*:192.0.2.34
2001:db8:0:1::*:192.0.2.18 2001:db8:0:2::*:192.0.2.34
+--------------+ +--------------+
| 192.0.2.18 | | 192.0.2.34 |
| (isatap) | | (isatap) |
| Host C | | Host D |
+--------------+ +--------------+
(* == "0000:5efe")
Figure 2: Example ISATAP Network Topology Using
Individual Prefix Model
With reference to Figure 2, advertising ISATAP routers 'A' and 'B'
within the IPv4 site connect to the IPv6 Internet either directly or
via a companion gateway. Router 'A' advertises the individual prefix
2001:db8:0:1::/64 into the IPv6 Internet routing system, and router
'B' advertises the individual prefix 2001:db8:0:2::/64. The routers
could instead both advertise a shorter shared prefix such as
2001:db8::/48 into the IPv6 routing system, but in that case they
would need to configure a mesh of IPv6 links between themselves in
the same fashion as described for the shared prefix model in
Section 3.3. For the purpose of this example, we also assume that
the IPv4 site is configured within multiple IPv4 subnets -- each with
an IPv4 prefix length of /28.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
Advertising ISATAP routers 'A' and 'B' both configure individual IPv4
unicast addresses 192.0.2.17/28 and 192.0.2.33/28 (respectively)
instead of, or in addition to, a shared IPv4 anycast address. Router
'A' then configures an advertising ISATAP router interface for the
site with link-local ISATAP address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.17, while
router 'B' configures an advertising ISATAP router interface for the
site with link-local ISATAP address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.33. The site
administrator then places the IPv4 addresses 192.0.2.17 and
192.0.2.33 in the site's PRL. 'A' and 'B' then both advertise their
IPv4 addresses into the site's IPv4 routing system.
ISATAP host 'C' connects to the site via an IPv4 interface with
address 192.0.2.18/28 and also configures an ISATAP host interface
with link-local ISATAP address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.18 over the IPv4
interface. 'C' next resolves the PRL and sends an RS message to the
IPv4 address 192.0.2.17, where IPv4 routing will direct it to 'A'.
'C' then receives an RA from 'A' then configures a default IPv6 route
with next-hop address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.17 via the ISATAP interface
and processes the IPv6 prefix 2001:db8:0:1:/64 advertised in the PIO.
If the A flag is set in the PIO, 'C' uses SLAAC to automatically
configure the IPv6 address 2001:db8:0:1::5efe:192.0.2.18 (i.e., an
address with an ISATAP interface identifier) and assigns it to the
ISATAP interface. If the L flag is set, 'C' also assigns the prefix
2001:db8:0:1::/64 to the ISATAP interface, and the IPv6 address
becomes a true ISATAP address.
In the same fashion, ISATAP host 'D' configures its IPv4 interface
with address 192.0.2.34/28 and configures its ISATAP interface with
link-local ISATAP address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.34. 'D' next performs
an RS/RA exchange that is serviced by 'B', then uses SLAAC to
autoconfigure the address 2001:db8:0:2::5efe:192.0.2.34 and a default
IPv6 route with next-hop address fe80::5efe:192.0.2.33. Finally,
IPv6 host 'E' connects to an IPv6 network outside of the site. 'E'
configures its IPv6 interface in a manner specific to its attached
IPv6 link, and it autoconfigures the IPv6 address 2001:db8:1::1.
Following this autoconfiguration, when host 'C' inside the site has
an IPv6 packet to send to host 'E' outside the site, it prepares the
packet with source address 2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.18 and destination
address 2001:db8:1::1. 'C' then uses IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation to
forward the packet to the IPv4 address 192.0.2.17, which will be
directed to 'A' based on IPv4 routing. 'A' in turn decapsulates the
packet and forwards it into the public IPv6 Internet, where it will
be conveyed to 'E' via normal IPv6 routing. In the same fashion,
host 'D' uses IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation via its default router 'B'
to send IPv6 packets to IPv6 Internet hosts such as 'E'.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
When host 'E' outside the site sends IPv6 packets to ISATAP host 'C'
inside the site, the IPv6 routing system will direct the packet to
'A' since 'A' advertises the individual prefix that matches 'C's
destination address. 'A' can then use ISATAP to statelessly forward
the packet directly to 'C'. If 'A' and 'B' both advertise the shared
shorter prefix 2001:db8::/48 into the IPv6 routing system, however,
packets coming from 'E' may be directed to either 'A' or 'B'. In
that case, the advertising ISATAP routers must connect within a full
or partial mesh of IPv6 links the same as for the shared prefix model
and must either run a dynamic IPv6 routing protocol or configure
static routes so that incoming IPv6 packets can be forwarded to the
correct serving router.
In this example, 'A' can configure the IPv6 route 2001:db8:0:2::/64
with the IPv6 address of the next hop toward 'B' in the mesh network
as the next hop, and 'B' can configure the IPv6 route
2001:db8:0.1::/64 with the IPv6 address of the next hop toward 'A' as
the next hop. Then, when 'A' receives a packet from the IPv6
Internet with destination address 2001:db8:0:2::5efe:192.0.2.34, it
first forwards the packet toward 'B' over an IPv6 mesh link. 'B' in
turn uses ISATAP to forward the packet into the site, where IPv4
routing will direct it to 'D'. In the same fashion, when 'B'
receives a packet from the IPv6 Internet with destination address
2001:db8:0:1::5efe:192.0.2.18, it first forwards the packet toward
'A' over an IPv6 mesh link. 'A' then uses ISATAP to forward the
packet into the site, where IPv4 routing will direct it to 'C'.
Finally, when host 'C' inside the site connects to host 'D' inside
the site, it has the option of using the native IPv4 service or the
ISATAP IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation service. When there is operational
assurance that IPv4 services between the two hosts are available, the
hosts may be better served to continue to use legacy IPv4 services in
order to avoid encapsulation overhead and to avoid any IPv4
protocol-41 filtering middleboxes that may be in the path. If 'C'
and 'D' may be in different IPv4 network partitions, however,
IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation should be used with one or both of routers
'A' and 'B' serving as intermediate gateways.
3.5. SLAAC Site Administration Guidance
In common practice, firewalls, gateways, and packet filtering devices
of various forms are often deployed in order to divide the site into
separate partitions. In both the shared and individual prefix models
described above, the entire site can be represented by the aggregate
IPv6 prefix assigned to the site, while each site partition can be
represented by "sliver" IPv6 prefixes taken from the aggregate. In
order to provide a simple service that does not interact poorly with
the site topology, site administrators should therefore institute an
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address plan to align IPv6 sliver prefixes with IPv4 site partition
boundaries.
For example, in the shared prefix model in Section 3.3, the aggregate
prefix is 2001:db8::/64, and the sliver prefixes are
2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.0/124, 2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.16/124,
2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.32/124, etc. In the individual prefix model
in Section 3.4, the aggregate prefix is 2001:db8::/48, and the sliver
prefixes are 2001:db8:0:0::/64, 2001:db8:0:1::/64, 2001:db8:0:2::/64,
etc.
When individual prefixes are used, site administrators can configure
advertising ISATAP routers to advertise different individual prefixes
to different sets of clients, e.g., based on the client's IPv4 subnet
prefix such that the IPv6 prefixes are congruent with the IPv4
addressing plan. (For example, administrators can configure each
advertising ISATAP router to provide services only to certain sets of
ISATAP clients through inbound IPv6 Access Control List (ACL) entries
that match the IPv4 subnet prefix embedded in the ISATAP interface
identifier of the IPv6 source address.) When a shared prefix is
used, site administrators instead configure the ISATAP routers to
advertise the shared prefix to all clients.
Advertising ISATAP routers can advertise prefixes with the (A, L)
flags set to (1,0) so that ISATAP clients will use SLAAC to
autoconfigure IPv6 addresses with ISATAP interface identifiers from
the prefixes and assign them to the receiving ISATAP interface, but
they will not assign the prefix itself to the ISATAP interface. In
that case, the advertising router must assign the sliver prefix for
the site partition to the advertising ISATAP interface. In this way,
the advertising router considers the addresses covered by the sliver
prefix as true ISATAP addresses, but the ISATAP clients themselves do
not. This configuration enables a hub-and-spoke architecture, which
in some cases may be augmented by route optimization based on the
receipt of ICMPv6 Redirects.
Site administrators can implement address selection policy rules
[RFC 6724] through explicit configurations in each ISATAP client in
order to give preference to IPv4 destination addresses over
destination addresses derived from one of the client's IPv6 sliver
prefixes. For example, site administrators can configure each ISATAP
client associated with a sliver prefix such as
2001:db8::5efe:192.0.2.64/124 to add the prefix to its address
selection policy table with a lower precedence than the prefix
::ffff:0:0/96. In this way, IPv4 addresses are preferred over IPv6
addresses from within the same sliver. The prefix could be added to
each ISATAP client either manually or through an automated service
such as a DHCP option [ADDR-SELECT] discovered by the client, e.g.,
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
using Stateless DHCPv6 [RFC 3736]. In this way, clients will use IPv4
communications to reach correspondents within the same IPv4 site
partition and will use IPv6 communications to reach correspondents in
other partitions and/or outside of the site.
It should be noted that sliver prefixes longer than /64 cannot be
advertised for SLAAC purposes. Also, sliver prefixes longer than /64
do not allow for interface identifier rewriting by address
translators. These factors may favor the individual prefix model in
some deployment scenarios, while the flexibility afforded by the
shared prefix model may be more desirable in others. Additionally,
if the network is small, then the shared prefix model works well. If
the network is large, however, a better alternative may be to deploy
separate ISATAP routers in each partition and have each advertise its
own individual prefix.
Finally, site administrators should configure ISATAP routers to not
send ICMPv6 Redirect messages to inform a source client of a better
next hop toward the destination unless there is strong assurance that
the client and the next hop are within the same IPv4 site partition.
3.6. Loop Avoidance
In sites that provide IPv6 services through ISATAP with SLAAC as
described in this section, site administrators must take operational
precautions to avoid routing loops. For example, each advertising
ISATAP router should drop any incoming IPv6 packets that would be
forwarded back to itself via another of the site's advertising
routers. Additionally, each advertising ISATAP router should drop
any encapsulated packets received from another advertising router
that would be forwarded back to that same advertising router. This
corresponds to the mitigation documented in Section 3.2.3 of
[RFC 6324], but other mitigations specified in that document can also
be employed.
Note that IPv6 packets with link-local ISATAP addresses are exempt
from these checks, since they cannot be forwarded by an IPv6 router
and may be necessary for router-to-router coordinations.
3.7. Considerations for Compatibility of Interface Identifiers
[RFC 5214], Section 6.1 specifies the setting of the "u" bit in the
Modified EUI-64 interface identifier format used by ISATAP.
Implementations that comply with the specification set the "u" bit to
1 when the IPv4 address is known to be globally unique; however, some
legacy implementations unconditionally set the "u" bit to 0.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
Implementations interpret the ISATAP interface identifier only within
the link to which the corresponding ISATAP prefix is assigned; hence,
the value of the "u" bit is interpreted only within the context of an
on-link prefix and not within a global context. Implementers are
responsible for ensuring that their products are interoperable;
therefore, implementations must make provisions for ensuring "u" bit
compatibility for intra-link communications.
Site administrators should accordingly configure ACL entries and
other literal representations of ISATAP interface identifiers such
that both values of the "u" bit are accepted. For example, if the
site administrator configures an ACL entry that matches the prefix
"fe80::0000:5efe:192.0.2.0/124", they should also configure a
companion list entry that matches the prefix
"fe80::0200:5efe:192.0.2.0/124".
4. Manual Configuration
When no autoconfiguration services are available (e.g., if there are
no advertising ISATAP routers present), site administrators can use
manual configuration to assign IPv6 addresses with ISATAP interface
identifiers to the ISATAP interfaces of clients. Otherwise, site
administrators should avoid manual configurations that would in any
way invalidate the assumptions of the autoconfiguration service. For
example, manually configured addresses may not be automatically
renumbered during a site-wide renumbering event, which could
subsequently result in communication failures.
5. Scaling Considerations
Section 3 depicts ISATAP network topologies with only two advertising
ISATAP routers within the site. In order to support larger numbers
of ISATAP clients (and/or multiple site partitions), the site can
deploy more advertising ISATAP routers to support load balancing and
generally shortest-path routing.
Such an arrangement requires that the advertising ISATAP routers
participate in an IPv6 routing protocol instance so that IPv6
addresses/prefixes can be mapped to the correct ISATAP router. The
routing protocol instance can be configured as either a full-mesh
topology involving all advertising ISATAP routers, or as a partial-
mesh topology with each advertising ISATAP router associating with
one or more companion gateways. Each such companion gateway would in
turn participate in a full mesh between all companion gateways.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
6. Site Renumbering Considerations
Advertising ISATAP routers distribute IPv6 prefixes to ISATAP clients
within the site. If the site subsequently reconnects to a different
ISP, however, the site must renumber to use addresses derived from
the new IPv6 prefixes [RFC 6879].
For IPv6 services provided by SLAAC, site renumbering in the event of
a change in an ISP-served IPv6 prefix entails a simple renumbering of
IPv6 addresses and/or prefixes that are assigned to the ISATAP
interfaces of clients within the site. In some cases, filtering
rules (e.g., within filtering tables at site-border firewalls) may
also require renumbering, but this operation can be automated and
limited to only one or a few administrative "touch points".
In order to renumber the ISATAP interfaces of clients within the site
using SLAAC, advertising ISATAP routers need only schedule the
services offered by the old ISP for deprecation and begin to
advertise the IPv6 prefixes provided by the new ISP. Lifetimes of
ISATAP client interface addresses will eventually expire, and the
host will renumber its interfaces with addresses derived from the new
prefixes. ISATAP clients should also eventually remove any
deprecated SLAAC prefixes from their address selection policy tables,
but this action is not time-critical.
Finally, site renumbering in the event of a change in an ISP-served
IPv6 prefix further entails locating and rewriting all IPv6 addresses
in naming services, databases, configuration files, packet filtering
rules, documentation, etc. If the site has published the IPv6
addresses of any site-internal nodes within the public Internet DNS
system, then the corresponding resource records will also need to be
updated during the renumbering operation. This can be accomplished
via secure dynamic updates to the DNS.
7. Path MTU Considerations
IPv6-in-IPv4 encapsulation overhead effectively reduces the size of
IPv6 packets that can traverse the tunnel in relation to the actual
Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) of the underlying IPv4 network path
between the tunnel ingress and egress. Two methods for accommodating
IPv6 path MTU discovery over IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnels (i.e., the static
and dynamic methods) are documented in Section 3.2 of [RFC 4213].
The static method places a "safe" upper bound on the size of IPv6
packets permitted to enter the tunnel; however, the method can be
overly conservative when larger IPv4 path MTUs are available. The
dynamic method can accommodate much larger IPv6 packet sizes in some
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
cases, but can fail silently if the underlying IPv4 network path does
not return the necessary error messages.
This document notes that sites that include well-managed IPv4 links,
routers, and other network middleboxes are candidates for use of the
dynamic MTU determination method, which may provide for a better
operational IPv6 experience in the presence of IPv6-in-IPv4 tunnels.
Finally, since all ISATAP tunnels terminate at a host, transport
protocols that perform packet-size negotiations will see an IPv6 MTU
that accounts for the encapsulation headers and therefore will avoid
sending encapsulated packets that exceed the IPv4 path MTU.
8. Alternative Approaches
[RFC 4554] proposes a use of VLANs for IPv4-IPv6 coexistence in
enterprise networks. The ISATAP approach provides a more flexible
and broadly applicable alternative and with fewer administrative
touch points.
The tunnel broker service [RFC 3053] uses point-to-point tunnels that
require end users to establish an explicit administrative
configuration of the tunnel's far end, which may be outside of the
administrative boundaries of the site.
6to4 [RFC 3056] and Teredo [RFC 4380] provide "last resort" unmanaged
automatic tunneling services when no other means for IPv6
connectivity is available. These services are given lower priority
when the ISATAP managed service and/or native IPv6 services are
enabled.
6rd [RFC 5969] enables a stateless prefix delegation capability based
on IPv4-embedded IPv6 prefixes, whereas ISATAP enables a stateful
prefix delegation capability based on native IPv6 prefixes.
9. Security Considerations
In addition to the security considerations documented in [RFC 5214],
sites that use ISATAP should take care to ensure that no routing
loops are enabled [RFC 6324]. Additional security concerns with IP
tunneling are documented in [RFC 6169].
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
10. Acknowledgments
The following are acknowledged for their insights that helped shape
this work: Dmitry Anipko, Fred Baker, Ron Bonica, Brian Carpenter,
Remi Despres, Thomas Henderson, Philip Homburg, Lee Howard, Ray
Hunter, Joel Jaeggli, John Mann, Gabi Nakibly, Christopher Palmer,
Hemant Singh, Mark Smith, Ole Troan, and Gunter Van de Velde.
11. References
11.1. Normative References
[RFC 3315] Droms, R., Bound, J., Volz, B., Lemon, T., Perkins, C.,
and M. Carney, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for
IPv6 (DHCPv6)", RFC 3315, July 2003.
[RFC 3736] Droms, R., "Stateless Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol
(DHCP) Service for IPv6", RFC 3736, April 2004.
[RFC 4213] Nordmark, E. and R. Gilligan, "Basic Transition Mechanisms
for IPv6 Hosts and Routers", RFC 4213, October 2005.
[RFC 4861] Narten, T., Nordmark, E., Simpson, W., and H. Soliman,
"Neighbor Discovery for IP version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 4861,
September 2007.
[RFC 4862] Thomson, S., Narten, T., and T. Jinmei, "IPv6 Stateless
Address Autoconfiguration", RFC 4862, September 2007.
[RFC 5214] Templin, F., Gleeson, T., and D. Thaler, "Intra-Site
Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP)", RFC 5214,
March 2008.
11.2. Informative References
[ADDR-SELECT]
Matsumoto, A., Fujisaki, T., and T. Chown, "Distributing
Address Selection Policy using DHCPv6", Work in Progress,
April 2013.
[ENT-IPv6] Chittimaneni, K., Chown, T., Howard, L., Kuarsingh, V.,
Pouffary, Y., and E. Vyncke, "Enterprise IPv6 Deployment
Guidelines", Work in Progress, February 2013.
[ISATAP-UPDATE]
Templin, F., "ISATAP Updates", Work in Progress, May 2012.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
[RFC 1687] Fleischman, E., "A Large Corporate User's View of IPng",
RFC 1687, August 1994.
[RFC 2491] Armitage, G., Schulter, P., Jork, M., and G. Harter, "IPv6
over Non-Broadcast Multiple Access (NBMA) networks", RFC
2491, January 1999.
[RFC 2529] Carpenter, B. and C. Jung, "Transmission of IPv6 over IPv4
Domains without Explicit Tunnels", RFC 2529, March 1999.
[RFC 2983] Black, D., "Differentiated Services and Tunnels", RFC
2983, October 2000.
[RFC 3053] Durand, A., Fasano, P., Guardini, I., and D. Lento, "IPv6
Tunnel Broker", RFC 3053, January 2001.
[RFC 3056] Carpenter, B. and K. Moore, "Connection of IPv6 Domains
via IPv4 Clouds", RFC 3056, February 2001.
[RFC 3168] Ramakrishnan, K., Floyd, S., and D. Black, "The Addition
of Explicit Congestion Notification (ECN) to IP", RFC
3168, September 2001.
[RFC 4057] Bound, J., "IPv6 Enterprise Network Scenarios", RFC 4057,
June 2005.
[RFC 4380] Huitema, C., "Teredo: Tunneling IPv6 over UDP through
Network Address Translations (NATs)", RFC 4380, February
2006.
[RFC 4554] Chown, T., "Use of VLANs for IPv4-IPv6 Coexistence in
Enterprise Networks", RFC 4554, June 2006.
[RFC 4852] Bound, J., Pouffary, Y., Klynsma, S., Chown, T., and D.
Green, "IPv6 Enterprise Network Analysis - IP Layer 3
Focus", RFC 4852, April 2007.
[RFC 5969] Townsley, W. and O. Troan, "IPv6 Rapid Deployment on IPv4
Infrastructures (6rd) -- Protocol Specification", RFC
5969, August 2010.
[RFC 6169] Krishnan, S., Thaler, D., and J. Hoagland, "Security
Concerns with IP Tunneling", RFC 6169, April 2011.
[RFC 6324] Nakibly, G. and F. Templin, "Routing Loop Attack Using
IPv6 Automatic Tunnels: Problem Statement and Proposed
Mitigations", RFC 6324, August 2011.
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RFC 6964 ISATAP Operational Guidance May 2013
[RFC 6724] Thaler, D., Draves, R., Matsumoto, A., and T. Chown,
"Default Address Selection for Internet Protocol Version 6
(IPv6)", RFC 6724, September 2012.
[RFC 6879] Jiang, S., Liu, B., and B. Carpenter, "IPv6 Enterprise
Network Renumbering Scenarios, Considerations, and
Methods", RFC 6879, February 2013.
Author's Address
Fred L. Templin
Boeing Research & Technology
P.O. Box 3707 MC 7L-49
Seattle, WA 98124
USA
EMail: fltemplin@acm.org
Templin Informational PAGE 20
RFC TOTAL SIZE: 49568 bytes
PUBLICATION DATE: Friday, May 31st, 2013
LEGAL RIGHTS: The IETF Trust (see BCP 78)
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