I took a cut at a requirements statement for IPv6 DNS Discovery. Comments
are appreciated.
Thanks,
Bob
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IPv6 DNS Discovery Requirements Statement
IPv6 provides two approaches to basic IPv6 configuration. One is
server-less and is defined in IPv6 Neighbor Discover [RFC2461] and the IPv6
Stateless Address Autoconfiguration [RFC2462]. The other is server
oriented and is defined in DHCPv6 [dhcpv6 id]. IPv6 Neighbor Discovery
includes flags to direct an IPv6 host to use either approach.
In order for an IPv6 host to communicate on the Internet it needs an IPv6
address, IPv6 prefix for the link it is attached, default router address,
and a DNS server address. This information allows the host to use basic
internet services like the web, email, file transfer, etc.
The server-less approach currently provides mechanisms for the IPv6 host to
learn an address, IPv6 prefix for the link, and default router address, but
does not provide any mechanism for the IPv6 host to learn any DNS
information. Without any DNS information the IPv6 host can not use basic
internet services with out some other kind of configuration (except by the
user typing in literal IPv6 addresses). Requiring users to enter literal
IPv6 addresses in difficult in IPv6 given the size of the addresses.
The basic requirement for IPv6 DNS Discovery is to provide a server-less
mechanism to enable a host to learn the address of an DNS server. This
will complete the IPv6 server-less configuration mechanisms.
For this requirement, Server-less is defined to mean the DNS information is
learned with out any dependence on resources other than are needed (i.e.,
links, interfaces, routers, and DNS server) to communicate with the DNS server.
IPv6 DNS Discovery should work inside of a single site where the DNS
servers are in the site and between sites where the DNS servers and hosts
are located in different sites (e.g., small home office where DNS servers
are in the ISP's network).
It is also desirable to learn other related DNS information such as default
DNS for the IPv6 host, search path, LLMNR enabled flag, etc. in a
server-less manner.
Desirable aspects of a solution the meets these requirements include:
- Minimal changes to existing implementations
- A solution that could be standardized in a short amount of time.
- Minimal use of bandwidth
References
[DHCPv6] J. Bound, et. al., Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6
(DHCPv6), Internet Draft, <draft-ietf-dhc-dhcpv6-23.txt>,
February 2002.
[RFC2461] T. Narten, et. al., Neighbor Discovery for IP Version 6 (IPv6),
RFC2461, December 1998.
[RFC2462] S. Thomson, et. al., IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration,
RFC2462, December 1998.
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