What is the IPv6 equivalent to IPv4 RFC1918 addresses?

Posted by Kumba on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by Kumba
Published on 2010-12-28T03:15:45Z Indexed on 2010/12/28 3:56 UTC
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Having a hard time wrapping my head around IPv6 here. A lot of the lingo seems targeted at enterprise-level IPv6 deployments, discussing link-local, site-local, global unicast, scopes, etc. Not a lot of solid information on really small networks, like home networks. I want to check my thinking and make sure I am getting the correct translations from IPv4-speak to IPv6-speak.

The first question is, what's the equivalent of RFC1918 for IPv6? Initial searches suggested there was no equivalent. Then I stumbled upon Unique Local Addresses (RFC4193), and that states that all ULA's should be assigned the prefix fc00, followed by a 40-bit random number in the routing prefix. This random number is to "prevent collisions when two IPv6 networks are interconnected" -- again, another reference to an enterprise-level function.

If I have a small local LAN at home, numbered using 192.168.4.0/24, what's my equivalent in IPv6's ULA scope? Assuming I will never, ever, tie that IPv6 address into the real internet (a router will NAT & firewall it), can I ignore the RFC to an extent and go with fc00::4:0/120?

It also seems that any address in fc00::/7 are to be globally routable. Does this mean I'll need extra protections so my router would not automatically start advertising these private IPv6 addresses to the world?

Second question, what's this link-local thing? Reading suggests a default-assigned address in the fe80::/10 range that has the last 64bits of the address comprised of the interface's MAC address. Seems to be required, too, but I'm annoyed by the constant discussion of it in relation to enterprise networks.

Third question, what is scope id for? Seems to be yet another term tossed around in relation to enterprise networks, especially when interconnecting them, but almost no explanation on the smaller home network level.

Can I see a scope ID AND CIDR notation used together? I.e., fc00::4:0/120%6, or are scope IDs only supposed to be applied to a single /128 IPv6 address?

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