HP-UX 11i Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)

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The Internet is changing ...

The Internet has changed the world. And the world is changing the Internet, more specifically, the underlying TCP/IP protocol of the Internet. Version 4 of the Internet Protocol (IPv4), designed more than twenty years ago, has been stretched beyond its limits in scalability, security and manageability. The Internet's explosive growth has rapidly depleted the available IPv4 address space, forcing many organizations to resort to complex, difficult to manage translation schemes which in turn make the introduction of services like Voice over IP (VoIP) or instant messaging unnecessarily difficult. The lack of built-in security in IPv4 also meant that a multitude of, often not interoperable, bolt-on security mechanisms were implemented to protect against the ever-present threats.

Enter the next-generation Internet protocol — also known as "IPng" or "IPv6." IPv6 was specifically designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to address these scalability, security and manageability issues:

• Extended address space — IP address size increased from 32 bits to 128 bits, supporting many more addressable nodes and levels of addressing hierarchy
• End-to-end encryption at the network layer for data confidentiality
• Auto-configuration and quality of service support for improved manageability

Evolve to IPv6

To synchronize their infrastructure with their business needs, enterprises are evolving their network to take advantage of the scalability, security and manageability capabilities that IPv6 offer.

IPv6 solution from the leader

As leader in the international IPv6 community, HP through HP-UX 11i delivers the best implementation of IPv6 in the industry featuring the latest capabiliites, the most thorough transition support for a smooth evolution, and a completeness of solution unmatched by others.

It is not surprising therefore that the leading deployments of IPv6 in production environments are on HP-UX 11i systems.

Some of the IPv6 features available with HP-UX 11i are:

- Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD): MLD (specified in RFC 2710) is a sub-protocol of ICMPv6. MLD is automatically enabled when an IPv6 interface is initialized. This RFC specifies a protocol that an IPv6 router uses to detect multicast listeners (nodes interested in receiving multicast packets) on its directly attached links. The Management Information Base (MIB) for MLD (defined in RFC 3019) is also supported.

- Router Advertisement functionality (specified in RFC 2461) is implemented with a new daemon, rtradvd. The rtradvd daemon listens for Router Solicitation and sends Router Advertisement messages on-demand or periodically.

- IPv6 over FDDI Link Support.

- New IPv6 Transition Mechanisms Enhancements:

• RFC 2473 - Packet Tunneling in IPv6
• RFC 2893 - Transition Mechanisms for IPv4 Hosts and Routers
• RFC 3056 - Connection of IPv6 Domains via IPv4 Clouds
  
  

HP-UX 11i IPv6 Features Overview

- Smooth transition from IPv4 to IPv6 Dual stacks facilitate IPv6 deployment, allowing existing applications to coexist on both IPv4 and IPv6 networks. Application modification is required only when the application needs to take advantage of the features of IPv6.

- Plug-and-Play address auto-configuration A "link local" IP address is automatically configured to allow immediate communication with directly connected hosts, printers, or other devices.

- Security at the IP layer IPv6 has built-in IP security extensions for authentication, data integrity, and data confidentiality — ensured by a standard header extension, for end-to-end encryption at the network layer.

- Quality-of-service support IPv6 incorporates built in controls that allow network traffic to be prioritized and reserved.

- Mobility support Auto-configuration, routing headers, destination options, anycast address, encapsulation, security, and flow label management all contribute to IPv6's natural mobility support.

- Links supported HP-UX 11i IPv6 runs over Ethernet, FDDI, Infiniband and more links.

- Supported RFCs include:

• RFC 1981 - IPv6 PMTU Discovery
• RFC 2373 - IPv6 Addressing Support
• RFC 2374 - IPv6 Aggregatable Global Unicast Address Format
• RFC 2375 - IPv6 Multicast Address
• RFC 2452 - IPv6 MIB for TCP
• RFC 2460 - IPv6 Specification
• RFC 2461 - IPv6 Neighbor discovery
• RFC 2462 - Stateless Autoconfiguration
• RFC 2463 - ICMPv6 Specification
• RFC 2464 - Transmission of IPv6 packets over Ethernet Networks
• RFC 2465 - MIB for IPv6: Textual Conventions
• RFC 2466 - MIB for IPv6 ICMPv6 Group
• RFC 2473 - Generic Packet Tunneling in IPv6 RFC 2893 - Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts (Automatic and Configured Tunnels)
• RFC 3056 - Connection of IPv6 Domains via IPv4 Clouds
• RFC 3376 - Internet Group Management Protocol Version 3 (IGMPv3)
• RFC 3484 - Default Address Selection for IP Version 6
• RFC 3810 - Multicast Listener Discovery Version 2 (MLDv2)
• RFC 4193 - Unique Local IPv6 Unicast Addresses
• RFC 4213 - Basic Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers
• RFC 4291 - IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture
• RFC 4443 - Internet Control Message Protocol for
• IPv6 (ICMPv6) IPv6 over VLAN
• Ability to Disable Autoconfiguration Based on Router Advertisements
• IPv4/IPv6 Dual Stack
• RFC 3493 - Basic Socket Interface Extensions for IPv6
• RFC 3542 - Advanced Socket APIs for IPv6
• RFC 3678 - Socket Interface Extensions for Multicast Source Filters
• RFC 4584 - Extension to Socket API for Mobile IPv6

- Network configuration & testing utilities

• ifconfig, netstat, nslookup, ping, route, nettl, ndd, ndp

- Additional feature support

• DCE RPC
• lpspool
• syslogd

HP-UX 11i is a recipient of the IPv6 Ready Logo which indicates that HP-UX 11i is compliant with IPv6 Base Specifications. More information on the IPv6 Ready logo program is available at www.ipv6ready.org.