9 .ds CH Naming IPv6 address parts
10 .ds LF Donnerhacke, Hartmann
12 .ds CF Expires November 5, 2011
16 .\" 5678901234567 check 72 column width 12345678901234567890123456789012
17 Internet Draft L. Donnerhacke
18 Category: Proposed Standard Editor
19 Updates: 4291, 5952 Richard Hartmann
20 Expires: November 5, 2011 Editor
24 Naming IPv6 address parts
25 draft-hartmann-6man-addresspartnaming-01
32 This Internet-Draft is submitted to IETF in full conformance with the
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35 Internet-Drafts are working documents of the Internet Engineering Task
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50 This Internet-Draft will expire on October 5, 2011.
55 Copyright (c) 2011 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the document
56 authors. All rights reserved.
58 This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal Provisions
59 Relating to IETF Documents (http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect
60 on the date of publication of this document. Please review these documents
61 carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect to
68 In the daily communication between technicians, engineers and other people
69 who need to deal with computer networks, it is often necessary to refer to
70 particular parts of IP addresses. In the world of IPv4, the term "octet" is
71 well established, however as the use of IPv6 is spreading, it becomes
72 apparent that there is no such commonly accepted term for IPv6 addresses.
74 Discussing and explaining technical matters become difficult when different
75 people use different terms for the same thing. Therefore, this document
76 discusses several naming proposal for those 16bit pieces of IPv6 addreses.
82 .so draft-hartmann-6man-addresspartnaming.toc
90 Verbal and written communication requires a common set of terms, easily
91 understood by every potential party. While deploying IPv6, when refering to
92 segments of IPv6 addresses, confusion regularly arises due to the usage of
93 different and sometimes conflicting nomenclature for the same pieces of
96 [IPV6Addr] is the normative reference to IPv6 addressing and avoids to coin
97 a special term for the subject of this document itself:
100 The preferred form is x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x, where the 'x's are one to four
101 hexadecimal digits of the eight 16-bit pieces of the address.
104 [IPv6Rep] is the normative reference to IPv6 address text representation and
105 introduces the term "16-bit field" or short "field".
111 While we readily agree that the naming of IPv6 address parts is not the most
112 pressing concern the Internet is facing today, a common nomenclature is
113 important for efficient communication.
115 In IPv6 deployments the delimiting colons are regularly used to facilitate
116 the separation of labels discerning not only administrative boundaries but
117 also network segments and distinct infrastructure components. Consequently
118 the values between the colons are frequently refered to especially in
119 communication regarding coordinative matters.
121 Time spent explaining what one is referring to is wasted and conflicting
122 names can lead to misunderstanding while the usage of a common term helps
123 facilitating quick understanding.
125 To solve this problem, the specification of a precise and recognizable term
128 A typical ambiguity occurs in [IPv6Rep] which uses the term "field" or
129 "16-bit field" for the term in question. This case is interesting because
130 there was a short IETF WG discussion which term should be used.
132 If an IPv6 address field in a certificate was incorrectly verified by
133 converting it to text ...
136 Since parts of the internet community only accept authoritative advice
137 substantiated by a published document, also known as the 'citation needed'
138 approach, it is helpful to have a definite source.
141 3. Naming Considerations
143 Any term that can be confused with other technical terms due to phonetic
144 similarities can lead to misconfiguration causing reachability and security
145 risks to the involved and third parties. Even with English being the
146 preferred language in the IT world today, a good name should describe the
147 technical matter precisely while being easy to remember, spell and pronounce
148 in as many languages as possible.
154 "hexadectet" is directly derived from IPv4's "octet", thus technically
155 correct and convenient to get used to. Because it is harder to pronounce,
156 the short form "hextet" is used.
158 A hextet refers to a 16 bit entity, aligned by colons.
160 "hextet" MUST be used in all technical documents and specifications refering
161 to IPv6 address parts. It SHOULD be used in all informal communication,
165 5. Security Considerations
167 This memo does not directly discuss security issues, however the lack of a
168 common, well established term could lead to misinterpretation, possibly
169 resulting in insecure configurations and other problems.
172 6. IANA Considerations
174 No assignments by the IANA are required. However it will be required
175 that the IANA adopts the term in future documents.
183 7.1. Normative References
186 [IPV6Addr] Deering, S. and R. Hinden, "IP Version 6 Addressing Architecture",
187 RFC 4291, February 2006
190 [IPv6Rep] Kawamura, S. and Kawashima, M., "A Recommendation for IPv6
191 Address Text Representation", RFC 5952, August 2010
194 [Q.6] ITU-T, "Advantages of international automatic working",
195 Fascicle VI.1 of the Blue Book, 1988
198 [RFC2119] S. Bradner, Key words for use in RFCs to Indicate Requirement
203 7.2. Informal References
206 [greg] http://etherealmind.com/network-dictionary-chazwazza/, Sept 5, 2010
212 Thanks go to Greg Ferro who initiated the discussion by proposing the term
215 Many thanks to all everyone who contributed to this document and participated
216 in the poll, whittling down the other propoals, which are described in
217 former versions of this memo: Chazwazza, Chunk, Column, Colonade, Colonnade,
218 Doctet, Field, Hexadectet, Hit, Orone, Part, Provider Number, Customer
219 Number, Network Number, Quad nibble, Qibble, Segment, Tuple, and Word.
221 The inital version of this document was created following the spirit of
233 Tel: 1.6.5.3.7.5.1.4.6.3.9.4.e164.arpa.
239 Email: richih.mailinglist@gmail.com
240 IRC: RichiH@{freenode,OFTC,IRCnet}
241 http://richardhartmann.de
254 EMail: kre@netsign.eu
258 01458 Ottendorf-Okrilla
260 EMail: leon@whitejack.org
264 Supporter's Addresses
267 Lahnsteiner Strasse 7
275 EMail: t.dahm@resolution.de
281 EMail: joerg@dorchain.net
288 E-Mail: sascha.lenz@s-lz.net
295 EMail: jl@jenslink.net
301 EMail: jan.w@lzer.net
305 EMail: sebastian@karotte.org
309 Appendix A. Change History
312 - exact copy of draft-denog-v6ops-addresspartnaming-04
314 01 - propose hextet as only option, try to get this version