Appendix B IPv6
WX Series User’s Guide
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• Router advertisement: A response to a router solicitation or a periodical multicast advertisement from
a router to advertise its presence and other parameters.
IPv6 C a c he
An IPv6 host is required to have a neighbor cache, destination cache, prefix list and default router list.
The WX Device maintains and updates its IPv6 caches constantly using the information from response
messages. In IPv6, the WX Device configures a link-local address automatically, and then sends a
neighbor solicitation message to check if the address is unique. If there is an address to be resolved or
verified, the WX Device also sends out a neighbor solicitation message. When the WX Device receives a
neighbor advertisement in response, it stores the neighbor’s link-layer address in the neighbor cache.
When the WX Device uses a router solicitation message to query for a router and receives a router
advertisement message, it adds the router’s information to the neighbor cache, prefix list and
destination cache. The WX Device creates an entry in the default router list cache if the router can be
used as a default router.
When the WX Device needs to send a packet, it first consults the destination cache to determine the
next hop. If there is no matching entry in the destination cache, the WX Device uses the prefix list to
determine whether the destination address is on-link and can be reached directly without passing
through a router. If the address is unlink, the address is considered as the next hop. Otherwise, the WX
Device determines the next-hop from the default router list or routing table. Once the next hop IP
address is known, the WX Device looks into the neighbor cache to get the link-layer address and sends
the packet when the neighbor is reachable. If the WX Device cannot find an entry in the neighbor
cache or the state for the neighbor is not reachable, it starts the address resolution process. This helps
reduce the number of IPv6 solicitation and advertisement messages.
Multic a st Liste ne r Disc o ve ry
The Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) protocol (defined in RFC 2710) is derived from IPv4's Internet
Group Management Protocol version 2 (IGMPv2). MLD uses ICMPv6 message types, rather than IGMP
message types. MLDv1 is equivalent to IGMPv2 and MLDv2 is equivalent to IGMPv3.
MLD allows an IPv6 switch or router to discover the presence of MLD listeners who wish to receive
multicast packets and the IP addresses of multicast groups the hosts want to join on its network.
MLD snooping and MLD proxy are analogous to IGMP snooping and IGMP proxy in IPv4.
MLD filtering controls which multicast groups a port can join.
MLD Me ssa g e s
A multicast router or switch periodically sends general queries to MLD hosts to update the multicast
forwarding table. When an MLD host wants to join a multicast group, it sends an MLD Report message
for that address.
An MLD Done message is equivalent to an IGMP Leave message. When an MLD host wants to leave a
multicast group, it can send a Done message to the router or switch. The router or switch then sends a
group-specific query to the port on which the Done message is received to determine if other devices
connected to this port should remain in the group.
