On Mon, 10 Aug 2026 at 05:29, Mark Smith <[email protected]> wrote:
> I think a field in IPv6 RAs needs to be renamed, however when I've thought > about it more, even Router Advertisements should be renamed, because they > do more than just advertise routers. > > That's not realistic now given how prevalent "Router Advertisement" > terminology is. However, in the intro I've discussed what RAs are really > doing and how it may be worth remembering to think about what they're > actually doing. > >From https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4861/#section-3: Router Advertisement: Routers advertise their presence together > with various link and Internet parameters either > periodically, or in response to a Router Solicitation > message. Router Advertisements contain prefixes that > are used for determining whether another address shares > the same link (on-link determination) and/or address > configuration, a suggested hop limit value, etc. It's not advertising routers, it's a router advertising its capability of reaching particular things and the parameters needed to use it -- you're under no obligation to use it, it's just there if you want it. That's how I've always understood it, anyway. That's backed up by https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4861/#section-4.2 because (unlike DHCP, which is a service) it's advertising capability, not authority. You somewhat cover that in your draft: Given the far more general purpose of IPv6 RAs, the name Router > Advertisements itself is inaccurate. They not only announce a router to > nodes on a link, they also announce a number of other link and subnet > specific IPv6 parameters. Indeed, they're saying "if you use me, you'll need to understand my MTU, and where I can reach" -- otherwise they would be "routing advertisements" not "router advertisements". M
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