In the Future of Networking with Fred Baker Fred mentioned an interesting IPv6 deployment scenario: give a /64 prefix to every server to support container deployment, and run routing protocols between servers and ToR switches to advertise the /64 prefix to the data center fabric preferably using link-local addresses.

Let’s recap:

We just turned 128-bit IPv6 addresses into 64-bit endpoint identifiers.

Do I have to mention that the original IPv6 proposal had 64-bit addresses, and they added the extra 64 bits to support IPX-style auto-configuration?

Endpoint address is assigned to a node, not to an interface.

Endpoints use a node-to-router protocol to advertise their endpoint address.

All routers within a domain advertise individual endpoint addresses.

Endpoint addresses are summarized into a larger prefix at the routing domain boundary.

Hooray, yet again we reinvented CLNP. We might have used it 25 years ago instead of inventing a new protocol.

Note: in case you’re still wondering what this IPv6 thing is all about, check out my IPv6 content.