Tim Enos wrote:
From: Su Thunder <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 2006/09/26 Tue AM 10:53:59 CDT
To: ipv6@ietf.org
Subject: A question about Source Address of IP Field of ND Packets(RFC2461)

The Source Address of Router Solicitation Message is specified in section 4.1 as follows:
  IP Fields:

     Source Address
                    An IP address assigned to the sending interface, or
                    the unspecified address if no address is assigned
                    to the sending interface.
My question is, why not specify whether the Source Address is link-local address or other type when it is not the unspecified address?And when to use which type?Or it must be link-local address as the one of the Router Advertisement Message? The same problem occurs in the same field of Neighbor Solicitation Message,Neighbor Advertisement Message.

Unless there is no address assigned to a sending interface (in which case the SA would be ::), I can't think of a reason for any ND message to require the SA be anything but link-local in scope.
For neighbour solicitations:
Please read section 7.2.2 of RFC2461 which explains when it is desirable to use another (generally a global scope address) of the sending interfaces' assigned addresses rather than the link local address. It helps get the neighbour caches at both ends set up and the association of link layer and IP addresses determined in one round trip.BTW this sometimes means that NS/ND packets contravene the usual rules on source/destination addresses matching - see the end of section 2.3 in the updated version of RFC2461 (draft-ietf-ipv6-2461bis-08.txt).

For router solicitations:
The usual case is that a node sending a router solicitation will only have link local addresses at the stage in configuration when the soliictation is sent, so it doesn't have a choice. As with neighbout solitctation using a real address rather tha the unspecified address allows address resolution to be piggybacked onto the single round trip.

Regards,
Elwyn

As a general rule (and perhaps going beyond the intended scope of the original 
e-mail), RFC 3484 section 5 provides guidance for source address selection. 
Further, section 10.1 of that same spec provides what are IMO good examples 
thereof.

Best Regards,

Tim Enos
Rom 8:28


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