The AERO Address
Boeing Research & Technology
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fltemplin@acm.org
I-D
Internet-Draft
IPv6 interfaces are required to have a link-local address that is
unique on the link. Nodes normally derive a link local address through
the use of IPv6 Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) and employ
Duplicate Address Detection (DAD) to ensure uniqueness. This document
presents a method for a node that obtains a delegated prefix to
statelessly construct a link-local address (known as the "AERO address")
that is assured to be unique on the link.
IPv6 interfaces are required to have a link-local address that is
unique on the link .
Nodes normally derive a link local address through the use of IPv6
StateLess Address Auto Configuration (SLAAC) and employ Duplicate
Address Detection (DAD) to ensure uniqueness . This document presents a
method for a node that obtains a delegated prefix to statelessly
construct one or more link-local addresses (known as "AERO addresses")
that are assured to be unique on the link.
Nodes that construct AERO addresses must have assurance that all
other nodes on the link employ the same address autoconfiguration
method. This can be assured on links for which there is an
"IPv6-over-(foo)" specification that mandates use of AERO addresses
(e.g., see: ). Other link
types can be administratively coordinated (e.g., via network management)
to assure that only AERO addresses are used.
The terminology in the normative references applies.
The key words "MUST", "MUST NOT", "REQUIRED", "SHALL", "SHALL NOT",
"SHOULD", "SHOULD NOT", "RECOMMENDED", "MAY", and "OPTIONAL" in this
document are to be interpreted as described in .
Lower case uses of these words are not to be interpreted as carrying
RFC2119 significance.
An AERO address is an IPv6 link-local address with an interface
identifier based on a prefix that has been delegated to a node for its
own exclusive use.
For IPv6, AERO addresses begin with the prefix fe80::/64 and include
in the interface identifier (i.e., the lower 64 bits) a 64-bit prefix
taken from the node's delegated IPv6 prefix. For example, if the node
obtains the IPv6 delegated prefix 2001:db8:1000:2000::/56 it constructs
its corresponding AERO addresses as:
fe80::2001:db8:1000:2000
fe80::2001:db8:1000:2001
fe80::2001:db8:1000:2002
... etc. ...
fe80::2001:db8:1000:20ff
For IPv4, AERO addresses are based on an IPv4-mapped IPv6
address formed from the node's delegated IPv4
prefix. For example, for the IPv4 prefix 192.0.2.16/28 the IPv4-mapped
AERO addresses are:
fe80::FFFF:192.0.2.16
fe80::FFFF:192.0.2.17
fe80::FFFF:192.0.2.18
... etc. ...
fe80:FFFF:192.0.2.31
Administratively-provisioned AERO addresses are allocated from the
range fe80::/96, and MUST be managed for uniqueness by the
administrative authority for the link. For interfaces that assign IPv4
addresses, the lower 32 bits of the AERO address includes the IPv4
address, e.g., for the IPv4 address 192.0.2.1 the corresponding AERO
address is fe80::192.0.2.1. For other interfaces, the lower 32 bits of
the AERO address includes a unique integer value, e.g., fe80::1,
fe80::2, fe80::3, etc. (Note that the address fe80:: is reserved as the
IPv6 link-local Subnet Router Anycast address ,
and the address fe80::ffff:ffff is reserved for special-purposes; hence,
these values are not available for administrative assignment.)
AERO addresses that embed an IPv6 prefix can be statelessly
transformed into an IPv6 Subnet Router Anycast address and vice-versa. For example, for the AERO address
fe80::2001:db8:2000:3000 the corresponding Subnet Router Anycast address
is 2001:db8:2000:3000::, and for the IPv6 Subnet Router Anycast address
2001:db8:1:2:: the corresponding AERO address is fe80::2001:db8:1:2.
The AERO address is useful for mobile networks that comprise a mobile
router and a tethered network of "Internet of Things" devices that
travel together with the router as a single unit. The mobile router
assigns the AERO address to its upstream interface over which it
receives a prefix delegation from a delegating router. The manner for
receiving the delegated prefix could be through static configuration or
some automated prefix delegation service.
Many other use case scenarios are possible (e.g., home networks) but
the above case extends to multitudes of applications, e.g., a cell phone
and its associated devices, an airplane and its on-board network, etc. A
similar uses case exists for a mobile node that obtains a delegated
prefix solely for its own internal multi-addressing purposes. These use
cases are discussed in .
Public domain implementations exist that use the AERO address format
as described in this document.
This document introduces no IANA considerations.
This work is aligned with the NASA Safe Autonomous Systems Operation
(SASO) program under NASA contract number NNA16BD84C.
This work is aligned with the FAA as per the SE2025 contract number
DTFAWA-15-D-00030.
This work is aligned with the Boeing Information Technology (BIT)
MobileNet program and the Boeing Research & Technology (BR&T)
enterprise autonomy program.
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