IPv6 Hash-Based Addresses for Simple Network Deployment

Abstract—The configuration of an IPv6 network is a rather daunting and error-prone procedure for system administrators. Each node must be provided with its own (128 bit long) IPv6 address and with a domain name manageable by human beings. Autoconfiguration methods can give addresses to interfaces but do not provide any means of configuring the DNS. This paper presents some methods based on hash functions which highly simplify the network configuration process. System administra- tors just need to define the fully qualified domain names of all the networking nodes (servers and clients) and the networking prefixes for each LAN or subnet. Each node will acquire its own IPv6 address and the DNS server will be automatically configured to support name resolution for all the nodes. The whole process does not require system administrators to type any IPv6 addresses, and it is fully compatible with existing protocols for autoconfiguration and name resolution.