Individual Submission G. Huston Internet-Draft Telstra Expires: August 15, 2003 A. Lord APNIC P. Smith Cisco February 14, 2003 IPv6 Documentation Address draft-huston-ipv6-documentation-prefix-00.txt Status of this Memo This document is an Internet-Draft and is in full conformance with all provisions of Section 10 of RFC2026. Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), its areas, and its working groups. Note that other groups may also distribute working documents as Internet-Drafts. Internet-Drafts are draft documents valid for a maximum of six months and may be updated, replaced, or obsoleted by other documents at any time. It is inappropriate to use Internet-Drafts as reference material or to cite them other than as "work in progress." The list of current Internet-Drafts can be accessed at http:// www.ietf.org/ietf/1id-abstracts.txt. The list of Internet-Draft Shadow Directories can be accessed at http://www.ietf.org/shadow.html. This Internet-Draft will expire on August 15, 2003. Copyright Notice Copyright (C) The Internet Society (2003). All Rights Reserved. Abstract To reduce the likelihood of conflict and confusion when relating documented examples to deployed systems, an IPv6 unicast prefix is reserved for use in examples in RFCs, books, documentation, and the like. Since site-local and link- local unicast addresses have special meaning in IPv6, these addresses cannot be used in many example situations. The document describes the use of the IPv6 address prefix 2001:0DB8::/32 as a reserved prefix for use in documentation. This prefix has been assigned by the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) for this purpose, on behalf of the Regional Internet Huston, et al. Expires August 15, 2003 [Page 1] Internet-Draft IPv6 Documentation Address February 2003 Registries. 1. Introduction The address architecture for IPv6 [1] does not specifically allocate an IPv6 address prefix for use for documentation purposes. Documentation material is currently using address prefixes drawn from address blocks already allocated or assigned to existing organizations or to well known ISPs, or drawn from the currently unallocated address pool. Such use conflicts with existing or future allocations or assignments of IPv6 address space. The problems such conflicts may cause have already been encountered with IPv4 where literal use of documented examples in a production environment causes address and routing conflicts with existing services. In making an explicit allocation of a documentation address prefix, it is intended that such operational problems may be avoided for IPv6. Similar, but different, discussion also applies to top level domain names and some have been reserved for similar purposes [2]. 2. Documentation IPv6 Address Prefix To allow documentation to accurately describe deployment examples the use of site local or link local addresses is inappropriate, and a unicast address block is required. All IPv6 unicast address space is marked reserved or allocated [1], and no unicast address space has been specifically nominated for the purposes of use in documented examples. Following acceptance within the addressing community of a proposal for a block of IPv6 address space to be created for documentation purposes, the Regional Internet Registries allocated a unicast address prefix for documentation purposes. The address block is within the range of a conventional allocation size, so that documentation can accurately match deployment scenarios. Multicast addresses can also be reserved for documentation using this document reserved address space together with the Unicast prefix-based proposal [3]for multicast addresses. The prefix allocated for documentation purposes is 2001:0DB8::/32 3. Operational Implications This assignment implies that IPv6 network operators should add this address block to the list of non-routeable IPv6 address space, and if Huston, et al. Expires August 15, 2003 [Page 2] Internet-Draft IPv6 Documentation Address February 2003 packet filters are deployed, then this address should be added to packet filters. This not a private-use address block, and the filters may be used in both private and public contexts. Private use should use a site-local address block [1]. 4. IANA Considerations IANA is to reserve 2001:0DB8::/32 address space out of the global unicast address space as a documentation-only prefix, and note this reservation in the IPv6 address registry. No end party is to be assigned this address. 5. Security Considerations IPv6 addressing documents do not have any direct impact on Internet infrastructure security. Authentication of IPv6 packets is defined in [4]. 6. Acknowledgements The authors acknowledge the work of Marc Blanchet, assisted by Alain Durand, Robert Elz, Bob Fink and Dave Thaler, in authoring a previous proposal for a V6 documentation prefix. References [1] Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture", RFC 2373, July 1998. [2] Eastlake, D. and A. Panitz, "Reserved Top Level DNS Names", BCP 32, RFC 2606, June 1999. [3] Haberman, B. and D. Thaler, "Unicast-Prefix-based IPv6 Multicast Addresses", RFC 3306, August 2002. [4] Kent, S. and R. Atkinson, "IP Authentication Header", RFC 2402, November 1998. Authors' Addresses Geoff Huston Telstra Huston, et al. Expires August 15, 2003 [Page 3] Internet-Draft IPv6 Documentation Address February 2003 Anne Lord Asia Pacific Network Information Centre Philip Smith Cisco Systems Huston, et al. Expires August 15, 2003 [Page 4] Internet-Draft IPv6 Documentation Address February 2003 Intellectual Property Statement The IETF takes no position regarding the validity or scope of any intellectual property or other rights that might be claimed to pertain to the implementation or use of the technology described in this document or the extent to which any license under such rights might or might not be available; neither does it represent that it has made any effort to identify any such rights. Information on the IETF's procedures with respect to rights in standards-track and standards-related documentation can be found in BCP-11. Copies of claims of rights made available for publication and any assurances of licenses to be made available, or the result of an attempt made to obtain a general license or permission for the use of such proprietary rights by implementors or users of this specification can be obtained from the IETF Secretariat. 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Expires August 15, 2003 [Page 5] Internet-Draft IPv6 Documentation Address February 2003 HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Acknowledgement Funding for the RFC Editor function is currently provided by the Internet Society. Huston, et al. Expires August 15, 2003 [Page 6]