Effects Of IPv6 On Other Protocols
Abstract
Because IP is most important
protocol in TCP/IP suite for communication,
changing IP means changing dozens of
Internet protocols and conventions, ranging
from how IP addresses are stored in DNS
(domain name system) and applications, to
how datagrams are sent and routed over
Ethernet, PPP, Token Ring, FDDI, and
every other medium, to how programmers
call network functions. Applications written
for IPv4 also need to be either rewritten or
bridged to support IPv6. For example, FTP
embeds IP addresses in its protocol, thus
requiring changes to both the client and
server applications
In this paper, our main aim is to
identify some important protocols that are
affected by change in the IP address
mechanism (use of IPv6 instead of IPv4)
and to specify how these protocols are
affected, what changes are required and
overview of proposed solutions or versions
for such protocols. The main protocols to be
discussed in this paper are ICMP, DHCP
and routing protocols. How Domain Name
Server deals with the increased address
size in IPv6 (128bit) has also been
discussed.
Introduction
IPv6 is designed to overcome the
problems of IPv4[1]. The main goal is to
provide large address space. IPv6[2] include
useful features of IPv4 and drops some
features that are not praiseworthy. Following
are some changes from IPv4 to IPv6
• Increased Address Space : IPv6 use
128 bit address. Hence allowed
address.
• IPv6 also defines special type
address – ANYCAST Address.
• Simple Fixed Size Header : IPv6
header is fixed size header with only
7 fields. Where the IPv4 header is of
variable length and contains more
fields. Fixed size header reduce the
complexity of IPv6 based
applications.
• Support for QoS : IPv6 provides
better support for Quality of Service
by using Flow Label field. Hence
providing more flexibility to users in
terms of services.
• IPv6 supports address auto-
configuration.
• Rather than using option field in
header, IPv6 use extension headers.
• In today’s era mobile communication
is one of the most demanded
services. IPv6 provides better
support for mobile IP. Hence helps
in improving mobility related
aspects.
Before discussing IPv6 effects on
other protocols, we discuss IPv6 packet
header given in Figure 1.

The fields of the IPv6 header are:
• Version: IP version number (4 bits).
This field's value is 6 for IPv6 (and 4
for IPv4).
• Priority: Enables a source to identify
the desired delivery priority of this
packet (4 bits).
• Flow Label: Used by a source to
identify associated packets needing
the same type of special handling,
such as a real-time service between a
pair of hosts (24 bits).
• Payload Length: Length of the
payload (the portion of the packet
following the header), in octets (16
bits)
• Next Header: Identifies the type of
header immediately following the
IPv6 header; uses the same values as
the IPv4 Protocol field, where
applicable (8 bits).
• Hop Limit: Specifies the maximum
number of hops that a packet may
take before it is discarded (8 bits).
• Source Address: IPv6 address of the
originator of the packet (128 bits).
• Destination Address: IPv6 address of
the intended recipient(s) of the
packet (128 bits).
Effects on ICMP
Internet Control Message Protocol
(ICMP) has been designed to
compensate two deficiencies. First is,
situation where error has occurred
during transfer of packet, IP protocol has
no built in mechanism to inform the
sender about such error. Second is, the
IP protocol does not provide mechanism
for host and management queries such as
host or router is alive or not.
ICMPv4[4] is used with IPv4
protocol. ICMPv4 messages are divided
into two main categories: error reporting
messages and query messages. Various
error reporting messages are:
• Destination Unreachable
• Source Quench
• Time Exceeded
• Parameter Problems
• Redirection
Various queries messages are:
• Echo Request and Reply
• Timestamp Request and Reply
• Address-mask Request and Reply
• Router Solicitation and
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The ICMP is another protocol that is
modified in version TCP/IP6 protocol
suite. Modifications in ICMPv4 were
required because of changes in IP
mechanisms. ICMPv6[5] is developed to
use with IPv6
In case of IPv4, when router detect
that the datagram size is larger than the
Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU)
through which the datagram should pass
and do not able to forward it to next
network, router fragments the datagram.
In other words fragmentation is done at
intermediate routers and hosts. But the
fragmentation mechanism is
completely different with IPv6
protocol.
In IPv6 fragmentation is done only
at the sender machine. No intermediate
router fragments any datagram. If router
receives datagram that is larger than
MTU size, it discards datagram. In
ICMPv4 there is no error message to
report this error. Hence an error message
packet “Packet-Too-Big” is added to the
ICMPv6 protocol. After discarding the
datagram, router sends this ICMP error
message to source.
Flow label field in IPv6 header
allows controlling congestion and
discarding the least important message
during transmission. That implies that
there is no further need for flow control
i.e. to inform the sender to slow down.
Source Quench method is eliminated
from ICMPv6 that is used in ICMPv4 to
inform the sender to slow down.
Network layer version 4 consist
independent protocols ARP (Address
Resolution Protocol) and IGMP (Internet
Group Management Protocol). In
Network layer version 6 these protocol
versions eliminated and duties of these
layers are included in ICMPv6. For this
purpose, two new types of query
messages are added in ICMPv6. First is,
Neighbor Solicitation and Advertisement
- used to provide functionality of
Address Resolution Protocol. And
second is, Group Membership messages
that are used to provide functionality of
Internet Group Management Protocol.
Two types of query messages are
eliminated from ICMPv6. First one is
Timestamp Request and Reply. These
messages are implemented at other
layers such as TCP and are rarely used in
past is the reason behind elimination of
these message. Other types of eliminated
messages are Address- Mask and Reply.
These are eliminated because the subnet
section of IPv6 addresses allows subnets
use.
Effects on DHCP
Dynamic host Control Protocol
(DHCP) is used to assign temporary IP
address to nodes and to provide other
network information when nodes are
initialized. DHCPv4 [7] is used with
IPv4 protocol. As IPv6 provides many
changes in address mechanism[8], these
changes becomes helpful to improve
DHCP. Three such main changes in IPv6
are :
1. IPv6 provides global auto-
configuration feature. This feature
implies that hosts can compute their
IP address by appending its interface
 identifier (EUI – 64 bit address) to
link prefix.
2. IPv6 supports for multicasting
address. In case of DHCPv6[9],
clients multicast their requests rather
then broadcast as in DHCPv4 All
DHCPv6 servers register so that they
can receive DHCP multicast packets.
3. IPv6 provides concept of unique
Link Local Address for every
network interface. Hosts on the
network can use this address to send
request for assignment of IP address.
The auto-configuration in IPv6 as
specified in first point given above, arise
question regarding the requirement of
DHCP. IPv6 hosts are able to compute
its IP address – so why we still needs
DHCP. There are following reasons
that’s why we requires DHCP:
• Computing IP address by host
provides only single element
required for communication on the
network. But a host requires some
other parameters such as Domain
Names, VoIP parameters etc.. In
auto-configuration there is no such
way to find out which address is
provided by DNS.
• For audit purposes it is required to
have control over assigned addresses
so that it is possible to find out when
a given host used a given address.
According to these requirements
DHCPv6 works in two ways. First
case is stateful auto configuration -
use DHCP to configure the IP address
and associated parameters. Other is
Hybrid - use address auto
configuration plus DHCP for
parameter initialization.
Following are various changes made
in DHCP to comply it with IPv6:
• In DHCPv6, address allocation and
other parameters are specified by
message options rather then in fixed
fields of header. This change
facilitates to a request to include
demand for all interface address and
make the server able to offer address
to all interfaces in a single response.
Part of request may fail while other
part is completed successfully.
• To locate the server, DHCPv6 use
Solicit and Advertise messages.
DHCPDISCOVER & DHCPOFFER
messages are removed from DHPv6.
• DHCPv6 Clients send request by
multicasting messages. Where
DHCPv4 clients send request
through broadcasting.
• Another change in DHCPv6 is its
capability to using relay agent to
transmit messages to DHCP server.
Relay agents are usually provide link
between client and server.
Effects on DNS
As we know applications not use IP
addresses directly. These applications
use simple domain names that can be
easily remembered by users. Domain
Name Servers maintains records for each
domain name and corresponding IP
address. Mapping between these domain
names and corresponding IP addresses is
done using these records. DNS request
messages are sent via UDP datagram. 32
bit address of IPv4 and respective
domain name is stored through a records
in directory of DNS. But the extended
size of IPv6 address(128 bit) affects this
configuration. These records are not able
to maintain resource records for IPv6.
To solve the problem, IETF defines
 new types of records, that are AAAA
record and A6 record. AAAA records
simply map a domain name to a larger
128-bit address. A6 records allow the
mapping of IPv6 addresses to domain
names, and also the mapping of IPv6
address prefixes to partial domain
names. Thus, to obtain the IPv6 address
or addresses of a given name, the DNS
server must obtain a complete chain of
A6 records (each segment of the chain
may be given by a different DNS
server). The purpose of this feature is to
provide the ability to change the address
prefix of a given domain or sub-domain
by adjusting only a single record.
Conclusions
References
[1] “Introduction to IPv4”,
http://en.wikipedia.org.
[2] Shvetima Gulati, “The Internet
Protocol Part Two : The Present and
The Future”, from ACM portal.
[3] Gary C. Kessler, “IPv6: The
Next Generation Internet Protocol”,
February 1997.
[4] ICMP - 21st chapter,
Behrouz A Forouzon , Data
Communication and Networking, 4th
edition.
[5] “Internet Control Message
Protocol for IPv6 (ICMPv6) ”, from
www.technet2.microsoft.com.,
January 21, 2005
IPv6, provide larger IP address,
hierarchy of address, address auto-
configuration, and other change. Theses
changes effect other protocols. As
discussed in paper there are minor
changes in new versions of protocols. In
ICMPv6, changes are due to
fragmentation mechanism and flow label
of IPv6 header. ARP and IGMP
protocols removed from TCP/IPv6
protocol suite, these protocols are
embedded in ICMPv6. DHCP is effected
due to address autoconfiguration and
support of link local address features of
IPv6. Large size of IPv6 address effects
the DNS services. To store large address
entries IETF developed two new record
types : AAAA and A6 records.
[6] “Introduction to ICMPv6”,
http://en.wikipedia.org
[7]. DHCP - 17st chapter,
Behrouz A Forouzon , TCP/IP
Protocol Suite, 2nd edition.
[8] S. Deering, R. Hinden "Internet
Protocol, Version 6 (IPv6)
Specification, RFC 2460", December
1998.
[9] Charles E. Perkins and Jim
Bound, “DHCP for IPv6”, Sun
Microsystems, Inc.
[10] Daniel G. Waddington and
Fangzhe Chang, “Realizing the
Transition to IPv6”, Bell Research
Laboratories.