TABLE OF CONTENTS The Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6 (DHCPv6 or more simply DHCP) enables DHCP servers to pass configuration parameters such as IPv6 network addresses to IPv6 nodes. DHCP provides both robust stateful autoconfiguration and autoregistration of DNS Host Names.
DHCP offers the capability of automatic allocation of reusable network addresses and additional configuration flexibility. This protocol is a stateful counterpart to "IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration" (RFC 2462) and can be used separately or concurrently with the latter to obtain configuration parameters. DHCP is a client/server protocol that provides managed configuration of devices. DHCP can provide a device with addresses assigned by a DHCP server and other configuration information. The operational models and relevant configuration information for DHCPv4 and DHCPv6 are significantly different [DRO200301].
Clients and servers exchange DHCP messages using UDP. The client uses a link-local address or an address determined through other mechanisms for transmitting and receiving DHCP messages. DHCP servers receive messages from clients using a reserved, link-scoped multicast address. A DHCP client transmits most messages to this reserved multicast address so that the client need not be configured with the address or addresses of DHCP servers [DRO200301].
DHCP makes use of the following multicast addresses:
All_DHCP_Relay_Agents_and_Servers (FF02::1:2) A link-scoped multicast address used by a client to communicate with neighboring (i.e., on-link) relay agents and servers. All servers and relay agents are members of this multicast group.
All_DHCP_Servers (FF05::1:3) A site-scoped multicast address used by a relay agent to communicate with...
