Reference Guide

IP Addressing 183
8
IP Addressing
This section describes how to configure IP addressing on the switch.
It contains the following topics:
•Overview
• IPv4 Addressing
• IPv6 Addressing
Overview
The device functions as an IPv6-compliant host, as well as an IPv4-host (also
known as dual stack). This enables device operation in a pure-IPv6 network,
as well as in a combined IPv4/IPv6 network.
Difference Between IPv4 and IPv6 Addressing
The primary difference between IPv4 to IPv6 is the length of network
addresses. IPv6 addresses are 128 bits, whereas IPv4 addresses are 32 bits.
Thus, IPv6 addresses enable the use of many more unique addresses.
The 128-bit IPv6 address format is divided into eight groups of four
hexadecimal digits. Abbreviation of this format by replacing a group of zeros
with double colons (::) is acceptable. IPv6 address representation can be
further simplified by suppressing the leading zeros.
All IPv6 address formats are acceptable, yet for display purposes, the system
displays the most abbreviated form, which replaces groups of zeros with
double colons and removes the leading zeros.
IPv6 Prefixes
While Unicast IPv6 addresses written with their prefix lengths are permitted,
in practice their prefix lengths are always 64 bits, and therefore are not
required to be expressed. Any prefix that is less than 64 bits is a route or
address range that summarizes a portion of the IPv6 address space.
For every assignment of an IP address to an interface, the system runs the
Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) algorithm to ensure uniqueness.