3Com 4210G Series, Configuration Manual, Page: 293 / 1133

13-4
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Multicast address: An identifier for a set of interfaces (typically belonging to different nodes),
similar to an IPv4 multicast address. A packet sent to a multicast address is delivered to all
interfaces identified by that address.
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Anycast address: An identifier for a set of interfaces (typically belonging to different nodes). A
packet sent to an anycast address is delivered to one of the interfaces identified by that address
(the target interface is nearest to the source, according to a routing protocol’s measure of
distance).
There are no broadcast addresses in IPv6. Their function is replaced by multicast addresses.
The type of an IPv6 address is designated by the first several bits called format prefix.
Table 13-1 lists
the mappings between address types and format prefixes.
Table 13-1
Mappings between address types and format prefixes
Type Format prefix (binary) IPv6 prefix ID
Unassigned address 00...0 (128 bits) ::/128
Loopback address 00...1 (128 bits) ::1/128
Link-local address 1111111010 FE80::/10
Site-local address 1111111011 FEC0::/10
Unicast
address
Global unicast
address
other forms —
Multicast address 11111111 FF00::/8
Anycast address
Anycast addresses are taken from unicast address space
and are not syntactically distinguishable from unicast
addresses.
Unicast address
There are several types of unicast addresses, including aggregatable global unicast address, link-local
address, and site-local address.
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The aggregatable global unicast addresses, equivalent to public IPv4 addresses, are provided for
network service providers. This type of address allows efficient prefix aggregation to restrict the
number of global routing entries.
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The link-local addresses are used for communication between link-local nodes in neighbor
discovery and stateless autoconfiguration. Packets with link-local source or destination addresses
are not forwarded to other links.
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IPv6 unicast site-local addresses are similar to private IPv4 addresses. Packets with site-local
source or destination addresses are not forwarded out of the local site (a private network).
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Loopback address: The unicast address 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 (represented in the shortest format as ::1)
is called the loopback address and may never be assigned to any physical interface. Like the
loopback address in IPv4, it may be used by a node to send an IPv6 packet to itself.