Network Working Group                                       I. Souvatzis
Request for Comments: 2497                            The NetBSD Project
See Also: 1201                                              January 1999
Category: Standards Track


          Transmission of IPv6 Packets over ARCnet Networks

Status of this Memo

  This document specifies an Internet standards track protocol for the
  Internet community, and requests discussion and suggestions for
  improvements.  Please refer to the current edition of the "Internet
  Official Protocol Standards" (STD 1) for the standardization state
  and status of this protocol.  Distribution of this memo is unlimited.

Copyright Notice

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

1. Introduction

  This memo specifies a frame format for transmission of IPv6 [IPV6]
  packets and the method of forming IPv6 link-local and statelessly
  autoconfigured addresses on ARCnet networks. It also specifies the
  content of the Source/Target Link-layer Address option used by the
  Router Solicitation, Router Advertisement, Neighbor Solicitation,
  Neighbor Advertisement and Redirect messages described in [DISC],
  when those messages are transmitted on an ARCnet.

     The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL
     NOT", "SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL"
     in this document are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119
     [KWORD].

2. Frame Format

  IPv6 packets are link layer fragmented and reassembled according to
  [PHDS]. A brief but sufficient discussion of this fragmentation
  method can be found in [ARCIPV4].

  The protocol ID (System Code in ARCnet terminology) assigned to IPv6
  is C4 hexadecimal.








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3. Maximum Transmission Unit

  The maximum IPv6 packet length possible using this encapsulation
  method is 60480 octets. Since this length is impractical because of
  its worst case transmission time of several seconds, all ARCnet
  implementations on a given ARCnet network should agree on a smaller
  value.

  The default MTU for IPv6 [IPV6] packets on an ARCnet is 9072 octets.

  In the presence of a router, this size MAY be changed by a Router
  Advertisement [DISC] containing an MTU option. If a Router
  Advertisement is received with an MTU option specifying an MTU larger
  than 60480, or larger than a manually configured value less than
  60480, that MTU option may be logged to system management but MUST be
  otherwise ignored.

  If no router is available, the local MTU MUST be left at 9072 or MUST
  be manually configured to the same different value on all connected
  stations.

  Implementations MAY accept arriving IPv6 datagrams which are larger
  than their configured maximum transmission unit.  They are not
  required to discard such datagrams. If they can not handle larger
  datagrams, they MAY log the event to the system administration, but
  MUST otherwise silently discard them.

4. Stateless Auto-configuration

  If a node has an EUI-64 which is not used to form the Interface
  Identifier for any other interface, it SHOULD use that EUI-64 to form
  the Interface Identifier for its ARCnet interface.  If that EUI-64 is
  in use for another interface attached to a different link, it MAY be
  used for the ARCnet interface as well.

  The Interface Identifier is then formed from the EUI-64 by
  complementing the "Universal/Local" (U/L) bit, which is the next-
  to-lowest order bit of the first octet of the EUI-64.

  When a node has no EUI-64 available for forming its ARCnet Interface
  Identifer, it MUST form that identifier as specified in [AARCH],
  Appendix A, section "Links with Non-Global Identifier".  That is, the
  8 bit manually configured ARCnet address is appended to the 56 zero
  bits.

  For example, for an ARCnet interface with the configured address of
  49 hexadecimal this results in the following identifier:




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  |0              1|1              3|3              4|4              6|
  |0              5|6              1|2              7|8              3|
  +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+
  |0000000000000000|0000000000000000|0000000000000000|0000000001001001|
  +----------------+----------------+----------------+----------------+

  Note that this results in the universal/local bit set to "0" to
  indicate local scope.

  An IPv6 address prefix used for stateless auto-configuration [ACONF]
  of an ARCnet interface MUST have a length of 64 bits.

5. Link-Local Addresses

  The IPv6 link-local address [AARCH] for an ARCnet interface is formed
  by appending the Interface Identifier, as defined above, to the
  prefix FE80::/64.

   10 bits            54 bits                  64 bits
  +----------+-----------------------+----------------------------+
  |1111111010|         (zeros)       |    Interface Identifier    |
  +----------+-----------------------+----------------------------+

6. Address Mapping -- Unicast

  The procedure for mapping IPv6 addresses into ARCnet link-layer
  addresses is described in [DISC]. The Source/Target link layer
  Address option has the following form when the link layer is ARCnet.

            0                   1
            0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5
           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
           |     Type      |    Length     |
           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
           |ARCnet address |               |
           +---------------+              -+
           |                               |
           +-    5 octets of padding      -+
           |                               |
           +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

     Option fields:

     Type      1 for Source Link-layer address.
               2 for Target Link-layer address.
     Length         1 (in units of 8 octets).

     ARCnet address The 8 bit ARCnet address, in canonical bit order.



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7. Address Mapping -- Multicast

  As ARCnet only provides 1 multicast address (00 hexadecimal), all
  IPv6 multicast addresses MUST be mapped to this address.

8. Security Considerations

  The method of derivation of Interface Identifiers from ARCnet
  addresses is intended to preserve local uniqueness when possible.
  However, there is no protection from duplication through accident or
  forgery.

9. Acknowledgements

  Big parts of the new version of this memo are either based on
  [ETHIPV6] or on Matt Crawford's review of an earlier version.

10. References

  [AARCH]   Hinden, R. and S. Deering, "IP Version 6 Addressing
            Architecture", RFC 2373, July 1998.

  [ACONF]   Thomson, S. and T. Narten, "IPv6 Stateless Address
            Autoconfiguration", RFC 2462, December 1998.

  [ARCIPV4] Provan, D., "Transmitting IP Traffic over ARCNET Networks",
            RFC1201, Novell, Inc., February 1991.

  [DISC]    Narten, T., Nordmark, E. and W. Simpson, "Neighbor
            Discovery for IP Version 6 (IPv6)", RFC 2461, December
            1998.

  [ETHIPV6] Crawford, M., "Transmission of IPv6 Packets over Ethernet
            Networks", RFC 2464, December 1998.

  [EUI64]   "64-Bit Global Identifier Format Tutorial", http://stan
            dards.ieee.org/db/oui/tutorials/EUI64.html.

  [IPV6]    Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "Internet Protocol, Version 6
            (IPv6) Specification", RFC 2460, December 1998.

  [KWORD]   Bradner, S., "Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate
            Requirement Levels", BCP 14, RFC 2119, March 1997.

  [PHDS]    Novell, Inc., "ARCNET Packet Header Definition Standard",
            Novell Part Number 100-00721-001, November 1989.





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11. Author's Address

  Ignatios Souvatzis
  The NetBSD Project
  Stationenweg 29
  D-53332 Bornheim
  Germany

  Phone (work): +49 (228) 734316
  EMail: [email protected]









































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12.  Full Copyright Statement

  Copyright (C) The Internet Society (1999).  All Rights Reserved.

  This document and translations of it may be copied and furnished to
  others, and derivative works that comment on or otherwise explain it
  or assist in its implementation may be prepared, copied, published
  and distributed, in whole or in part, without restriction of any
  kind, provided that the above copyright notice and this paragraph are
  included on all such copies and derivative works.  However, this
  document itself may not be modified in any way, such as by removing
  the copyright notice or references to the Internet Society or other
  Internet organizations, except as needed for the purpose of
  developing Internet standards in which case the procedures for
  copyrights defined in the Internet Standards process must be
  followed, or as required to translate it into languages other than
  English.

  The limited permissions granted above are perpetual and will not be
  revoked by the Internet Society or its successors or assigns.

  This document and the information contained herein is provided on an
  "AS IS" basis and THE INTERNET SOCIETY AND THE INTERNET ENGINEERING
  TASK FORCE DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING
  BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY WARRANTY THAT THE USE OF THE INFORMATION
  HEREIN WILL NOT INFRINGE ANY RIGHTS OR ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
  MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
























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