RFC 3056 (rfc3056) - Page 1 of 23

Connection of IPv6 Domains via IPv4 Clouds

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Network Working Group                                       B. Carpenter
Request for Comments: 3056                                      K. Moore
Category: Standards Track                                  February 2001


               Connection of IPv6 Domains via IPv4 Clouds

Status of this Memo

   This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
   Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
   improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
   Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
   and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

   Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2001).  All Rights Reserved.

Abstract

   This memo specifies an optional interim mechanism for IPv6 sites to
   communicate with each other over the IPv4 network without explicit
   tunnel setup, and for them to communicate with native IPv6 domains
   via relay routers.  Effectively it treats the wide area IPv4 network
   as a unicast point-to-point link layer.  The mechanism is intended as
   a start-up transition tool used during the period of co-existence of
   IPv4 and IPv6.  It is not intended as a permanent solution.

   The document defines a method for assigning an interim unique IPv6
   address prefix to any site that currently has at least one globally
   unique IPv4 address, and specifies an encapsulation mechanism for
   transmitting IPv6 packets using such a prefix over the global IPv4
   network.

   The motivation for this method is to allow isolated IPv6 domains or
   hosts, attached to an IPv4 network which has no native IPv6 support,
   to communicate with other such IPv6 domains or hosts with minimal
   manual configuration, before they can obtain natuve IPv6
   connectivity.  It incidentally provides an interim globally unique
   IPv6 address prefix to any site with at least one globally unique
   IPv4 address, even if combined with an IPv4 Network Address
   Translator (NAT).








Carpenter & Moore           Standards Track
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