RFC 2546 (rfc2546) - Page 1 of 10
6Bone Routing Practice
Alternative Format: Original Text Document
Network Working Group A. Durand
Request for Comments: 2546 IMAG
Category: Informational B. Buclin
AT&T Labs Europe
March 1999
6Bone Routing Practice
Status of this Memo
This memo provides information for the Internet community. It does
not specify an Internet standard of any kind. Distribution of this
memo is unlimited.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999). All Rights Reserved.
1. Introduction
The 6Bone is an environment supporting experimentation with the IPv6
protocols and products implementing it. As the network grows, the
need for common operation rules emerged. In particular, operation of
the 6Bone backbone is a challenge due to the frequent insertion of
bogus routes by leaf or even backbone sites.
This memo identifies guidelines on how 6Bone sites might operate, so
that the 6Bone can remain a quality experimentation environment and
to avoid pathological situations that have been encountered in the
past. It defines the 'best current practice' acceptable in the 6Bone
for the configuration of both Interior Gateway Protocols (such as
RIPng [RFC 2080]) and Exterior Gateway Protocols (like BGP4+ [RFC
2283]).
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in [RFC 2119].
2. Basic principles
The 6Bone is structured as a hierarchical network with pseudo Top
Level Aggregator (pTLA) sites, pseudo Next Level Aggregator (pNLA)
sites and leaf sites. This topology supports the IPv6 address
aggregation architecture as described in [1]. The 6Bone backbone is
made of a mesh interconnecting pTLAs only. pNLAs connect to one or
more pTLAs and provide transit service for leaf sites.
Durand & Buclin Informational