RFC 3590 (rfc3590) - Page 1 of 6
Source Address Selection for the Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) Protocol
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group B. Haberman
Request for Comments: 3590 Caspian Networks
Updates: 2710 September 2003
Category: Standards Track
Source Address Selection for the
Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) Protocol
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 (2003). All Rights Reserved.
Abstract
It has come to light that there is an issue with the selection of a
suitable IPv6 source address for Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD)
messages when a node is performing stateless address
autoconfiguration. This document is intended to clarify the rules on
selecting an IPv6 address to use for MLD messages.
1. Introduction
The original specification of the Multicast Listener Discovery
Protocol (MLD) for IPv6 [RFC 2710] mandates the use of a link-local
IPv6 source address for the transmission of MLD messages. In
addition, MLD also requires nodes to send MLD Report messages when
joining any IPv6 multicast group (except the All-Nodes address and
addresses of scope less than 2).
These MLD requirements conflict with the use of IPv6 multicast within
the Neighbor Discovery Protocol [RFC 2461]. For stateless
autoconfiguration, as defined in [RFC 2462], a node is required to
join several IPv6 multicast groups in order to perform Duplicate
Address Detection prior to its use. Since the only address the node
has is tentative, and cannot be used for communication, it does not
have a suitable address to utilize as a source address.
Haberman Standards Track