Refactor abstract, intro and recommended reading.

- added quote from RFC4862 to remind readers that /64 is a parameter.

- one semantic change made, namely that routing subnets are already classless,
so this was removed from the intro.

- fix typo
This commit is contained in:
Nick Hilliard 2017-05-14 12:06:01 +01:00
parent 1a97a337ea
commit cb1a987e43

View file

@ -34,13 +34,11 @@
<abstract>
<t>Over the history of IPv6, various classful address models have
been proposed, with the most notable being Top-Level Aggregation
(TLA) and Next-Level Aggregation (NLA) Identifiers. They have all
proved to be mistakes. The last remnant of classful addressing is
a rigid network / interface identifier boundary at /64.
This document removes that boundary as far as routing and addressing
are concerned.</t>
<t>Over the history of IPv6, various classful address models have been
proposed, none of which has withstood the test of time. The last
remnant of IPv6 classful addressing is a rigid network interface
identifier boundary at /64. This document removes that boundary for
routing and interface addressing.</t>
</abstract>
@ -63,26 +61,22 @@
<section anchor="intro" title="Introduction">
<t>Over the history of IPv6, various classful address models have
been proposed, with the most notable being Top-Level Aggregation
(TLA) and Next-Level Aggregation (NLA) Identifiers; see, for
example, <xref target="RFC2450"/>. They have all proved to be
mistakes. For example, TLA and NLA were obsoleted by <xref
target="RFC3587"/>. The last remnant of classful addressing is a
rigid network / interface identifier boundary at /64.
This document removes that boundary as far as routing and addressing
are concerned.</t>
<t>Over the history of the IPv6 protocol, several classful addressing
models have been proposed. The most notable example recommended Top-Level
Aggregation (TLA) and Next-Level Aggregation (NLA) Identifiers <xref
target="RFC2450"/>, but was obsoleted by <xref target="RFC3587"/>, leaving
a single remnant of classful addressing in IPv6: a rigid network
interface identifier boundary at /64. This document removes that
boundary for interface addressing.</t>
<t>Some confusion has been caused by the IP Version 6 Addressing
Architecture, <xref target="RFC4291"/>, and the proposed changes in
<xref target="I-D.ietf-6man-rfc4291bis"/> with respect to the
minimum subnet size.</t>
<t>Meanwhile, link prefixes of varied lengths, /127, /126, /124,
/120, ... /64 have been successfully deployed for many years.
Having the formal specification be unclear risks potential
mis-implementation by the naïve, which could result in operational
disasters.</t>
<t>Recent proposed changes to the IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture
specification <xref target="RFC4291"/> have caused controversy.
While link prefixes of varied lengths, e.g. /127, /126, /124,
/120, ... /64 have been successfully deployed for many years, glaring
mismatches between a formal specification and long-standing field
deployment practices are never wise, not least because of the strong
risk of mis-implementation, which can easily result in serious
operational problems.</t>
</section>
@ -92,15 +86,15 @@
addressing in IPv4 and why it was abolished <xref
target="RFC4632"/>. Of course, the acute need to conserve address
space that forced the adoption of classless addressing for IPv4 does
not apply to IPv6; but the arguments for operational flexibility in
address allocation remain compelling.</t>
not apply to IPv6, but the arguments for operational flexibility in
address assignment remain compelling.</t>
<t>It is also assumed that the reader understands IPv6 <xref
target="RFC2460"/>, the IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture <xref
target="RFC4291"/>, the proposed changes to RFC4291 <xref
target="I-D.ietf-6man-rfc4291bis"/> and RFC2464
<xref target="I-D.hinden-6man-rfc2464bis"/>, and the recent
recommendations for the generation of stable Interface Identifiers
<xref target="I-D.hinden-6man-rfc2464bis"/>, and the IETF
recommendation for the generation of stable Interface Identifiers
<xref target="RFC8064"/>.</t>
<!--
@ -116,17 +110,26 @@ backward compatibility. (*)
rate is low enough.
-->
<t>An important recent IPv6 development was that, for host computers
on local area networks, the way in which interface identifiers were
formed was no longer bound to layer 2 addresses (MACs) <xref
target="RFC7217"/> <xref target="RFC8064"/>. Therefore their
length, previously fixed at 64 bits <xref target="RFC7136"/>, is in
fact a variably-sized parameter as stated in <xref
target="RFC4862"/>.</t>
<t>For host computers on local area networks, generation of interface
identifiers is no longer necessarily bound to layer 2 addresses (MACs)
<xref target="RFC7217"/> <xref target="RFC8064"/>. Therefore their
length, previously fixed at 64 bits <xref target="RFC7136"/>, is in fact
a variably-sized parameter as explicitly acknowledged in Section
5.5.3(d) of <xref target="RFC4862"/> which states:
<list><t>
Note that a future revision of the address architecture [RFC4291]
and a future link-type-specific document, which will still be
consistent with each other, could potentially allow for an
interface identifier of length other than the value defined in the
current documents. Thus, an implementation should not assume a
particular constant. Rather, it should expect any lengths of
interface identifiers.
</t></list>
</t>
</section>
<section anchor="simple" title="A simple Statement">
<t>To state it simply, IPv6 unicast subnetting is based on prefixes
@ -187,7 +190,7 @@ rate is low enough.
<section anchor="security" title="Security Considerations">
<t>Assumming that nodes employ unpredictable interface identifiers
<t>Assuming that nodes employ unpredictable interface identifiers
<xref target="RFC7721"/>, the subnet size may have an impact on some
security and privacy properties of a network. Namely, the smaller
the subnet size, the more feasible it becomes to perform IPv6