Users Guide

Table Of Contents
Dell PowerConnect W-Series ArubaOS 6.1 | User Guide IPv6 Support | 659
Chapter 35
IPv6 Support
This chapter describes ArubaOS support for IPv6 clients.
“About IPv6” on page659
“IPv6 Topology” on page659
“IPv6 Support for Controller and AP” on page660
“IPv6 Extension Header (EH) Filtering” on page666
“ArubaOS Support for IPv6 Clients” on page667
“ArubaOS Features that Support IPv6” on page669
“IPv6 User Addresses” on page673
“Important Points to Remember” on page674
About IPv6
The IPv6 protocol enables the next generation of large-scale IP networks by supporting addresses that are 128 bits
long. This allows 2
128
possible addresses (versus 2
32
possible IPv4 addresses).
Typically, the IP address assigned on an IPv6 host consists of a 64-bit subnet identifier and a 64-bit interface
identifier. IPv6 addresses are represented as eight colon-separated fields of up to four hexadecimal digits each.
The following are examples of IPv6 addresses:
FEDC:BA98:7654:3210:FEDC:BA98:7654:3210
1080:0:0:0:0:800:200C:417A
The use of the “::” symbol is a special syntax that you can use to compress one or more 16-bit groups of zeros or to
compress leading or trailing zeros in an address. The “::” can appear only once in an address. For example, the
address, 1080:0:0:0:0:800:200C:417A can also be represented as 1080::800:200C:417A.
IPv6 uses subnet identifiers to identify subnetworks to which nodes are attached. In ArubaOS, when you refer
IPv6 subnetworks in firewall policies, you must specify a subnet mask in addition to the IPv6 address. The subnet
mask is a bitmask that specifies the prefix length. For example, 1080::800:200C:417A
ffff:ffff:ffff:ffff::
represents all IPv6 addresses with the subnet identifier 1080:0:0:0.
IPv6 Topology
IPv6 APs connect to the IPv6 controller over an IPv6 L3 network. The IPv6 controller can terminate both IPv4
and IPv6 APs. IPv4 and IPv6 clients can terminate to either IPv4 or IPv6 APs. An external IPv6 router is required
in the subnet to generate router advertisements (RA), if the IPv6 APs and clients depend on stateless
autoconfiguration to obtain IPv6 address. The external IPv6 router is the default gateway in most deployments.
However, the controller can be the default gateway by using static routes.The master-local communication always
happens in IPv4.