IPv6 address component summary

The IPv6 Internet is divided into addressing zones and IPv6 addresses can be categorized by type and scope.

IPv6 addressing is represented in RFC 4291.

Address types

IPv6 addresses are divided into the following types:
  • Unicast

    Unicast addresses provide one-to-one communication.

  • Multicast

    Multicast addresses are similar in operation to IPv4 and provide one-to-many communication.

  • Anycast

    An Anycast address is a Unicast address used for several devices to allow them to communicate with the device closest to the source; one-to-nearest communication.

  • Broadcast

    In IPv6, broadcast addresses have been superseded by multicast addresses per RFC 4291.

For more information about address types and scopes, see IPv6 Address Types.

Address scopes

Following are IPv6 address scopes:
  • node-local

  • link-local

  • global

The switch does not support site-local addresses and, according to RFC 4193, site-local addresses will be replaced by unique-local addresses.

For more information about address types and scopes, see IPv6 address formats.

Address zones

The IPv6 Internet is divided into zones.

For example:
  • Each node is a separate zone of the node-local scope.

  • Each link is a separate zone of the link-local scope.

  • The entire Internet is a single zone of global scope.

Zones of the same scope do not overlap.