DHCPv6

Internet protocol suite
Application layer
BGP DHCP DHCPv6 DNS FTP HTTP IMAP IRC LDAP MGCP NNTP NTP POP RIP RPC RTP RTSP SIP SMTP SNMP SOCKS SSH Telnet TLS/SSL XMPP (more)
Transport layer
TCP UDP DCCP SCTP RSVP ECN (more)
Internet layer
IP IPv4 IPv6 ICMP ICMPv6 IGMP IPsec (more)
Link layer
ARP/InARP NDP OSPF Tunnels L2TP PPP Media access control Ethernet DSL ISDN FDDI (more)

DHCPv6 is the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6. Although IPv6's stateless address autoconfiguration can also be used to acquire IPv6 access, DHCPv6 may be a more suitable solution to assign addresses, nameservers and other configuration information as being done today with DHCP for IPv4. A notable case is Domain Name System servers used on a network, albeit other mechanisms exist for this in the Neighbor Discovery Protocol.

DUID

DUID means DHCP Unique IDentifier and is used by a client to get an IP address from a DHCPv6 server. It has a minimum length of 12 bytes (96 bits) and a maximum length of 20 bytes (160 bits). The actual length of it depends on the type. The server compares the DUID with its database and then delivers configuration data (address, lease times, DNS servers...) to the client. The first 16 bits of a DUID contain the DUID type (currently there are three types). The meaning of the remaining 96 bits depend on the DUID type.

Port numbers

• UDP port 546 for clients and UDP port 547 for servers.

Example

Suppose that the Server's link-local address is fe80::0011:22ff:fe33:5566/64 and the client's link-local address is fe80::aabb:ccff:fedd:eeff/64.

• DHCPv6 client sends a Solicit from [fe80::aabb:ccff:fedd:eeff]:546 for [ff02::1:2]:547.
• DHCPv6 server replies with an Advertise from [fe80::0011:22ff:fe33:5566]:547 for [fe80::aabb:ccff:fedd:eeff]:546.
• DHCPv6 client replies with a Request from [fe80::aabb:ccff:fedd:eeff]:546 for [ff02::1:2]:547.
• DHCPv6 server finishes with an Reply from [fe80::0011:22ff:fe33:5566]:547 for [fe80::aabb:ccff:fedd:eeff]:546.

Implementations

• Jagornet DHCPv6, an IPv6 Phase II Ready Certified DHCPv6 Server implemented in Java
• WIDE-DHCPv6, a DHCPv6 implementation for BSD and Linux
• Dibbler, a portable DHCPv6 implementation for Linux and Windows
• ISC DHCP, version 4.1.0 and later, for Solaris, Linux and BSD
• Linux DHCPv6 no new development, obsoleted by ISC DHCP
• Microsoft Windows Vista and later, built in Microsoft Windows

IETF standards

• RFC 3315, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)"
• RFC 3319, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCPv6) Options for Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) Servers"
• RFC 3633, "IPv6 Prefix Options for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) version 6"
• RFC 3646, "DNS Configuration options for Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6)"
• RFC 3736, "Stateless Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) Service for IPv6"
• RFC 5007, "DHCPv6 Leasequery"
• RFC 6221, "Lightweight DHCPv6 Relay Agent"

External links

• IPv6 Intelligence: DHCPv6, comparison of DHCPv6 packages and implementations