Interface and Hardware Component Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS Release 15S
IPv6 Automatic IPv4-Compatible Tunnels
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IPv6 Automatic IPv4-Compatible Tunnels

Last Updated: November 26, 2012

This feature provides support for IPv6 automatic IPv4-compatible tunnels. Automatic IPv4-compatible tunnels use IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses.

Finding Feature Information

Your software release may not support all the features documented in this module. For the latest caveats and feature information, see Bug Search Tool and the release notes for your platform and software release. To find information about the features documented in this module, and to see a list of the releases in which each feature is supported, see the feature information table at the end of this module.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Information About IPv6 Automatic IPv4-Compatible Tunnels

Overlay Tunnels for IPv6

Overlay tunneling encapsulates IPv6 packets in IPv4 packets for delivery across an IPv4 infrastructure (a core network or the figure below). By using overlay tunnels, you can communicate with isolated IPv6 networks without upgrading the IPv4 infrastructure between them. Overlay tunnels can be configured between border devices or between a border device and a host; however, both tunnel endpoints must support both the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks. IPv6 supports the following types of overlay tunneling mechanisms:

  • Manual
  • Generic routing encapsulation (GRE)
  • IPv4-compatible
  • 6to4
  • Intrasite Automatic Tunnel Addressing Protocol (ISATAP)
Figure 1Overlay Tunnels



Note
Overlay tunnels reduce the maximum transmission unit (MTU) of an interface by 20 octets (assuming that the basic IPv4 packet header does not contain optional fields). A network that uses overlay tunnels is difficult to troubleshoot. Therefore, overlay tunnels that connect isolated IPv6 networks should not be considered a final IPv6 network architecture. The use of overlay tunnels should be considered as a transition technique toward a network that supports both the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks or just the IPv6 protocol stack.

Use the table below to help you determine which type of tunnel that you want to configure to carry IPv6 packets over an IPv4 network.

Table 1Suggested Usage of Tunnel Types to Carry IPv6 Packets over an IPv4 Network

Tunneling Type

Suggested Usage

Usage Notes

Manual

Simple point-to-point tunnels that can be used within a site or between sites.

Can carry IPv6 packets only.

GRE- and IPv4- compatible

Simple point-to-point tunnels that can be used within a site or between sites.

Can carry IPv6, Connectionless Network Service (CLNS), and many other types of packets.

IPv4- compatible

Point-to-multipoint tunnels.

Uses the ::/96 prefix. We do not recommend using this tunnel type.

6to4

Point-to-multipoint tunnels that can be used to connect isolated IPv6 sites.

Sites use addresses from the 2002::/16 prefix.

6RD

IPv6 service is provided to customers over an IPv4 network by using encapsulation of IPv6 in IPv4.

Prefixes can be from the SP's own address block.

ISATAP

Point-to-multipoint tunnels that can be used to connect systems within a site.

Sites can use any IPv6 unicast addresses.

Individual tunnel types are discussed in detail in this document. We recommend that you review and understand the information about the specific tunnel type that you want to implement. When you are familiar with the type of tunnel you need, see the table below for a summary of the tunnel configuration parameters that you may find useful.

Table 2Tunnel Configuration Parameters by Tunneling Type

Tunneling Type

Tunnel Configuration Parameter

Tunnel Mode

Tunnel Source

Tunnel Destination

Interface Prefix or Address

Manual

ipv6ip

An IPv4 address, or a reference to an interface on which IPv4 is configured.

An IPv4 address.

An IPv6 address.

GRE/IPv4

gre ip

An IPv4 address.

An IPv6 address.

IPv4- compatible

ipv6ip auto-tunnel

Not required. These are all point-to-multipoint tunneling types. The IPv4 destination address is calculated, on a per-packet basis, from the IPv6 destination.

Not required. The interface address is generated as ::tunnel-source/96.

6to4

ipv6ip 6to4

An IPv6 address. The prefix must embed the tunnel source IPv4 address.

6RD

ipv6ip 6rd

An IPv6 address.

ISATAP

ipv6ip isatap

An IPv6 prefix in modified eui-64 format. The IPv6 address is generated from the prefix and the tunnel source IPv4 address.

Automatic IPv4-Compatible IPv6 Tunnels

Automatic IPv4-compatible tunnels use IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses. IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses are IPv6 unicast addresses that have zeros in the high-order 96 bits of the address, and an IPv4 address in the low-order 32 bits. They can be written as 0:0:0:0:0:0:A.B.C.D or ::A.B.C.D, where "A.B.C.D" represents the embedded IPv4 address.

The tunnel destination is automatically determined by the IPv4 address in the low-order 32 bits of IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses. The host or router at each end of an IPv4-compatible tunnel must support both the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks. IPv4-compatible tunnels can be configured between border-routers or between a border-router and a host. Using IPv4-compatible tunnels is an easy method to create tunnels for IPv6 over IPv4, but the technique does not scale for large networks.

How to Configure IPv6 Automatic IPv4-Compatible Tunnels

Configuring IPv4-Compatible IPv6 Tunnels

Perform this task to configure IPv4-compatible IPv6 tunnels.

Before You Begin

With an IPv4-compatible tunnel, the tunnel destination is automatically determined by the IPv4 address in the low-order 32 bits of IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses. The host or router at each end of an IPv4-compatible tunnel must support both the IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks.


SUMMARY STEPS

1.    enable

2.    configure terminal

3.    interface tunnel tunnel-number

4.    tunnel source {ip-address| interface-t ype interface-number}

5.    tunnel mode ipv6ip auto-tunnel


DETAILED STEPS
 Command or ActionPurpose
Step 1
enable


Example:

Router> enable

 

Enables privileged EXEC mode.

  • Enter your password if prompted.
 
Step 2
configure terminal


Example:

Router# configure terminal

 

Enters global configuration mode.

 
Step 3
interface tunnel tunnel-number


Example:

Router(config)# interface tunnel 0

 

Specifies a tunnel interface and number, and enters interface configuration mode.

 
Step 4
tunnel source {ip-address| interface-t ype interface-number}


Example:

Router(config-if)# tunnel source ethernet 0

 

Specifies the source interface type and number for the tunnel interface.

Note    The interface type and number specified in the tunnel source command is configured with an IPv4 address only.
 
Step 5
tunnel mode ipv6ip auto-tunnel


Example:

Router(config-if)# tunnel mode ipv6ip auto-tunnel

 

Specifies an IPv4-compatible tunnel using an IPv4-compatible IPv6 address.

 

Configuration Examples for IPv6 Automatic IPv4-Compatible Tunnels

Example: Configuring IPv4-Compatible IPv6 Tunnels

The following example configures an IPv4-compatible IPv6 tunnel that allows Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) to run between a number of routers without having to configure a mesh of manual tunnels. Each router has a single IPv4-compatible tunnel, and multiple BGP sessions can run over each tunnel, one to each neighbor. Ethernet interface 0 is used as the tunnel source. The tunnel destination is automatically determined by the IPv4 address in the low-order 32 bits of an IPv4-compatible IPv6 address. Specifically, the IPv6 prefix 0:0:0:0:0:0 is concatenated to an IPv4 address (in the format 0:0:0:0:0:0:A.B.C.D or ::A.B.C.D) to create the IPv4-compatible IPv6 address. Ethernet interface 0 is configured with a global IPv6 address and an IPv4 address (the interface supports both the IPv6 and IPv4 protocol stacks).

Multiprotocol BGP is used in the example to exchange IPv6 reachability information with the peer 10.67.0.2. The IPv4 address of Ethernet interface 0 is used in the low-order 32 bits of an IPv4-compatible IPv6 address and is also used as the next-hop attribute. Using an IPv4-compatible IPv6 address for the BGP neighbor allows the IPv6 BGP session to be automatically transported over an IPv4-compatible tunnel. 

interface tunnel 0
 tunnel source Ethernet 0
 tunnel mode ipv6ip auto-tunnel
interface ethernet 0
 ip address 10.27.0.1 255.255.255.0
 ipv6 address 3000:2222::1/64
router bgp 65000
 no synchronization
 no bgp default ipv4-unicast
neighbor ::10.67.0.2 remote-as 65002
address-family ipv6
 neighbor ::10.67.0.2 activate
 neighbor ::10.67.0.2 next-hop-self
 network 2001:2222:d00d:b10b::/64

Additional References

Related Documents

Related Topic Document Title

IPv6 addressing and connectivity

IPv6 Configuration Guide

Cisco IOS commands

Cisco IOS Master Commands List, All Releases

IPv6 commands

Cisco IOS IPv6 Command Reference

Cisco IOS IPv6 features

Cisco IOS IPv6 Feature Mapping

Standards and RFCs

Standard/RFC Title

RFCs for IPv6

IPv6 RFCs

MIBs

MIB

MIBs Link

To locate and download MIBs for selected platforms, Cisco IOS releases, and feature sets, use Cisco MIB Locator found at the following URL:

http://www.cisco.com/go/mibs

Technical Assistance

Description Link

The Cisco Support and Documentation website provides online resources to download documentation, software, and tools. Use these resources to install and configure the software and to troubleshoot and resolve technical issues with Cisco products and technologies. Access to most tools on the Cisco Support and Documentation website requires a Cisco.com user ID and password.

http://www.cisco.com/cisco/web/support/index.html

Feature Information for IPv6 Automatic IPv4-Compatible Tunnels

The following table provides release information about the feature or features described in this module. This table lists only the software release that introduced support for a given feature in a given software release train. Unless noted otherwise, subsequent releases of that software release train also support that feature.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform support and Cisco software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to www.cisco.com/go/cfn. An account on Cisco.com is not required.

Table 3Feature Information for IPv6 Automatic IPv4-Compatible Tunnels
Feature Name Releases Feature Information

IPv6 Tunneling: Automatic IPv4-Compatible Tunnels

12.0(22)S

12.2(14)S

12.2(28)SB

12.2(33)SRA

12.2(18)SXE

12.2(2)T

15.0(1)S

Automatic IPv4-compatible tunnels use IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses.

The following commands were introduced or modified: tunnel destination, tunnel mode ipv6ip, tunnel source.

Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. To view a list of Cisco trademarks, go to this URL: www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company. (1110R)

Any Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and phone numbers used in this document are not intended to be actual addresses and phone numbers. Any examples, command display output, network topology diagrams, and other figures included in the document are shown for illustrative purposes only. Any use of actual IP addresses or phone numbers in illustrative content is unintentional and coincidental.

© 2012 Cisco Systems, Inc. All rights reserved.