IPv6 & Linux - Current Status - Kernel and mandatory features

Contents

• Primary IPv6 features in the kernel
• Low level transport protocols
• User space daemons
• Security
• Mobility
• Stateful autoconfiguration
• Source address selection

Primary IPv6 features in the kernel

• Linux vanilla
• Kernel sources
• ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/
• USAGI project (here you will find also the related kernel patches and ready-to-install kernel RPMs)
• http://www.linux-ipv6.org/
• Comparisons with test suites (http://www.tahi.org/)
• 2000-09: http://www.linux-ipv6.org/linux-test-en/index.html

Currently work/update in progress...feel free to contribute!

Feature	RFC/ Draft	Status Vanilla 2.4 (2.4.6)	Status Vanilla 2.6	Who is working on it	Link to sources / Additional comments
Raw socket		working	working
TCP		working	working
UDP		working	working
SCTP	RFC 2960	working (reported 2004-07-29)	working (reported 2004-07-29)	lksctp project	Stream Transmission Control Protocol Linux Kernel SCTP (lksctp) Project
ICMP
ICMPv6	RFC 2463	working	working
ICMP node information queries	draft-ietf-ipngwg-icmp-name-lookups	missing		USAGI
Address configuration
Stateless address autoconfiguration		working
Privacy extensions for stateless address autoconfiguration	RFC 3041 draft-ietf-ipngwg-temp-addresses-v2	missing			per interface switchable
Node discovery
Duplicate address detection		working	working
Neigbour discovery		bugfixed		USAGI	some (older) versions do not re-join all-node multicast address on network devices after down and up again
Neigbour discovery for inverse discovery	RFC 3122	missing
Router discovery		bugfixed		USAGI	some (older) versions do not re-join all-node multicast address on network devices after down and up again
Tunneling
Static tunneling (IPv6 encapsulated in IPv4)		working	working
Automatic tunneling of IPv4-comaptible IPv6 addresses		working	working
6over4		missing			Stig Venås do not have enough time for this
6to4		working	working
6to4 over UDP	draft-ietf-ngtrans-shipworm	missing
IPv{4,6} over IPv6				USAGI
ISATAP	draft-ietf-ngtrans-isatap	in progress?			Fred Templin, Nathan Lutchansky
Teredo		described working	described working		Use miredo http://www.simphalempin.com/dev/miredo/
ToS bit handling	RFC 2893 3.5	probably
ToS bit handling at Differentiated Services and Tunnels	RFC 2983
Bridging
Multilink subnets	draft-thaler-ipngwg-multilink-subnets	missing
Routing
Unicast routing		working
Multicast routing				USAGI
Anycast routing		working			similar to unicast routing
Selections
Source address selection	draft-ietf-ipngwg-default-addr-select	in progress		Stig Venås	http://www.venaas.priv.no/ipv6/srcaddrsel.html kernel patch of the USAGI project more info below
Default router selection		working, but rather old
Security
IPsec Transport Mode AH			probably	USAGI
IPsec Transport Mode ESP			working	USAGI
IPsec Tunnel Mode AH			in progress	USAGI
IPsec Tunnel Mode ESP			working	USAGI
Firewalling		working (stateless)	working (stateless since 2.6.0, stateful since 2.6.20)	USAGI & Netfilter team
Mobility
Mobility support				MIPL
Options
hop-by-hop / jumbo payload		implemented
hop-by-hop / router alert		implemented
routing header		implemented
destination options				USAGI
QoS
Flow label support in kernel		still unknown
Flow label specific routing		still unknown
Flow label specific routing		still unknown		Wang Hui
Flow label support on application level		working?
Interface support / layer 2 transport protocols
Ethernet		working
Token-Ring				Mike Phillips
PPP	RFC 2472	working			with IPv6 enabled pppd working in 2.4 confirmed by me
ATM-PVC
ISDN CiscoHDLC					cannot test because of lack of a Cisco router
ISDN X.25					cannot test
ISDN HDLC using encapsulation ip		working			confirmed by me
ISDN HDLC using encapsulation syncppp and ipppd		not supported			confirmed by me, kernel doesn't support IPv6 in isdn_ppp.c: isdn_ppp: skipped unsupported protocol: 0xdd86. ipppd: i2.2 patch level 12
ISDN HDLC using encapsulation rawip		never capable			design issue, no type field available better called now rawipv4
SLIP and PLIP	RFC 1055	never capable			design issue, no type field available better called now SLIPv4
MPLS					URL: http://sf.net/projects/mpls-linux/
Still unsorted
Renumbering link net		working			with radvd
Multicast client		working
Anycast listening		missing
Path MTU discovery		bugfix in 2.4.6
sin6_socpe_id	like in RFC 2553			SEKIYA Yuji USAGI project	http://ftp2.v6.linux.or.jp/pub/Linux/kernel/patches/ ftp://ftp.nemoto.ecei.tohoku.ac.jp/pub/Net/IPv6/Patches/ kernel patch of the USAGI project discussions..., update of RFC is in progress
Divert sockets				Ilia Baldinei	http://www.anr.mcnc.org/~divert
specify next hop address	RFC 2292	missing
Traffic counters		missing			IPv6 data provided for SNMP

IPv6 packet filtering in kernel 2.4+

• URLs:
• Main: http://www.netfilter.org/

User space daemons

Security

Mobility

Stateful autoconfiguration

DHCPv6 

Hierarchicly router (and clients) renumbering

• Possible with very new versions of radvd

Source address selection

I think Linux needs better IPv6 source address selection. When there are several global non-deprecated addresses, the current code (2.3.99-pre6) simply picks the first it finds, while I would like to choose one with longest common prefix compared to the destination address. This is described in draft-ietf-ipngwg-default-addr-select-00.txt paragraph 4 rule 6, and seems to be what for instance Solaris 8 does.
This is generally useful when one has several global IPv6 addresses (multihomed). An important special case is when one of the addresses is a 6to4 address (starting with 2002::/16). If the destination address is 6to4 the source address must also be 6to4. If the destionation is some other global address (3ffe or something) it must not be used.

It's necessary when an interface has both 6to4 and "normal" global addresses

• URL: http://www.venaas.priv.no/ipv6/srcaddrsel.html

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