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dgcarter · ‎27-03-2010

Does anyone know whether (and if so when) Virgin plan to implement IPv6 on its network?

Dagger2 · ‎01-11-2018

Link-local addresses are self-assigned, not pulled from anywhere... or do you mean you have a default route assigned? In which case it's still not being pulled (default routes are advertised) but that would be a lot more interesting. If you can get a copy of rdisc6 and run it against your WAN interface then it might give a little bit more info.

andrewducker · ‎01-11-2018

Or go to http://ipv6-test.com/ and see if it says you have ipv6.

MichaelL01 · ‎01-11-2018

@Dagger2 wrote:
Link-local addresses are self-assigned, not pulled from anywhere... or do you mean you have a default route assigned? In which case it's still not being pulled (default routes are advertised) but that would be a lot more interesting. If you can get a copy of rdisc6 and run it against your WAN interface then it might give a little bit more info.

yes I believe so? it is a route to the CMTS system the same one that is issuing my ip4 address, here is the output of rdisc6 if it sheds some light on anything.

[2.4.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.network.dev]/tmp: rdisc6 re0
Soliciting ff02::2 (ff02::2) on re0...

Hop limit                 :    undefined (      0x00)
Stateful address conf.    :          Yes
Stateful other conf.      :          Yes
Mobile home agent         :           No
Router preference         :       medium
Neighbor discovery proxy  :           No
Router lifetime           :         9000 (0x00002328) seconds
Reachable time            :      3600000 (0x0036ee80) milliseconds
Retransmit time           :  unspecified (0x00000000)
 Prefix                   : 2a02:8800:f000:d23::/64
  On-link                 :          Yes
  Autonomous address conf.:           No
  Valid time              :      2592000 (0x00278d00) seconds
  Pref. time              :       604800 (0x00093a80) seconds
 Prefix                   : 2a02:88fd:d:4::/64
  On-link                 :          Yes
  Autonomous address conf.:           No
  Valid time              :     infinite (0xffffffff)
  Pref. time              :     infinite (0xffffffff)
 from fe80::201:5cff:fe82:447

@andrewducker wrote:
Or go to http://ipv6-test.com/ and see if it says you have ipv6.

I don't have a public ipv6 address assigned nor is my router issuing any addresses to clients, i just see the link-local address of CMTS but it isn't issuing me an address and it is the only outside ipv6 system I can access.

TonyJr · ‎01-11-2018

@MichaelL01 wrote:
@Dagger2 wrote:
Link-local addresses are self-assigned, not pulled from anywhere... or do you mean you have a default route assigned? In which case it's still not being pulled (default routes are advertised) but that would be a lot more interesting. If you can get a copy of rdisc6 and run it against your WAN interface then it might give a little bit more info.
yes I believe so? it is a route to the CMTS system the same one that is issuing my ip4 address, here is the output of rdisc6 if it sheds some light on anything.
[2.4.4-RELEASE][admin@pfSense.network.dev]/tmp: rdisc6 re0
Soliciting ff02::2 (ff02::2) on re0...

Hop limit                 :    undefined (      0x00)
Stateful address conf.    :          Yes
Stateful other conf.      :          Yes
Mobile home agent         :           No
Router preference         :       medium
Neighbor discovery proxy  :           No
Router lifetime           :         9000 (0x00002328) seconds
Reachable time            :      3600000 (0x0036ee80) milliseconds
Retransmit time           :  unspecified (0x00000000)
 Prefix                   : 2a02:8800:f000:d23::/64
  On-link                 :          Yes
  Autonomous address conf.:           No
  Valid time              :      2592000 (0x00278d00) seconds
  Pref. time              :       604800 (0x00093a80) seconds
 Prefix                   : 2a02:88fd:d:4::/64
  On-link                 :          Yes
  Autonomous address conf.:           No
  Valid time              :     infinite (0xffffffff)
  Pref. time              :     infinite (0xffffffff)
 from fe80::201:5cff:fe82:447
@andrewducker wrote:
Or go to http://ipv6-test.com/ and see if it says you have ipv6.
I don't have a public ipv6 address assigned nor is my router issuing any addresses to clients, i just see the link-local address of CMTS but it isn't issuing me an address and it is the only outside ipv6 system I can access.

woohoo! A sign of progress!

TonyJr

Anonymous · ‎01-11-2018

Unfortunately it looks the same as I reported back in January so I wouldn't read too much into it. Proves a chunk of infrastructure is at least ready to take part.

impromptu · ‎01-11-2018

@MichaelL01 wrote:
I don't have a public ipv6 address assigned nor is my router issuing any addresses to clients, i just see the link-local address of CMTS but it isn't issuing me an address and it is the only outside ipv6 system I can access.

I get the same thing. But aren't you getting two /64s assigned -

2a02:8800:f000:d23::/64
2a02:88fd:d:4::/64

The two address I get are similar - top one from the same /48, bottom one from the same /32. My CMTS is fe80::201:5cff:fe86:ac47

I don't know if Virgin plan to do DHCP6, but I'd have thought with those it would be enough to autoconfigure an address, if that wasn't turned off.

I tried assigning myself an IP address based on either of my two /64s and setting a default route to the CMTS using its link-local address. I can ping it via link-local, but traceroute can't get beyond it and needless to say I can't reach the Internet.

Edit: I also notice that VM are currently advertising prefixes 2a02::8801::/32 and 2a02:8880::/25 to BGP. The first of my prefixes isn't in an advertised range but the second is.

Morgaine · ‎04-11-2018

What you folks are logging is very interesting from the standpoint of IPv6 address planning. I like the symmetry between Virgin's and BT's /25 IPv6 RIPE allocations, which hopefully will help us keep our multi-homed systems tidy, avoiding excessive wear and tear on the brain 😛 :

BT prefix : 2a00:2380::/25 -- https://www.bgpview.io/asn/2856#prefixes-v6
VM prefix : 2a02:8880::/25 -- https://www.bgpview.io/asn/5089#prefixes-v6

As I described back in September in answer to @Adduxi, if our /56 delegations come out of those large /25 blocks then the leading 6 hex digits (6*4 = 24 bits) of our addresses will always be 2a00:23 (BT) or 2a02:88 (VM), and the 25th bit will always be a 1 (never a 0), so our 7th hex digit will always be in the range from '8' through to 'f'. Simple and tidy.

That 7th hex digit and the next 7 digits will be the varying part of our individual /56 prefixes (6 + 1 + 7 = 14 hex digits == 14*4 = 56 bits), so the addressing layout I described in that post applies nearly identically to Virgin. However, there appears to be a difference in the schemes chosen for CPE management assignments, as Virgin seems to have chosen Block fd instead of Block 01 --- I'm going to assume that this means that they've assigned the top 3 /64 blocks for management or other predefined uses, namely Block fd through Block ff (although engineers prefer powers of 2 so Block fc might be pre-allocated too).

So here's a guess at our forthcoming IPv6 assignments but this time using VM's prefix. As before, a delegation of /56 provides 256 blocks of /64:

2a02:88xx:xxxx:xx00::/64 - Block 00 - Probably on CPE's LAN interface and switch
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xx01::/64 - Block 01 - First block available for domestic routing
.... 249 more /64 blocks
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxfb::/64 - Block fb - Last block available for domestic routing
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxfc::/64 - Block fc - Unknown use, possibly reserved, or free
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxfd::/64 - Block fd - CPE management, possibly WAN routing too
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxfe::/64 - Block fe - Unknown use, possibly reserved
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxff::/64 - Block ff - Unknown use, possibly reserved

If this is indeed Virgin's general IPv6 assignment scheme for customer delegations then I actually prefer it to BT's, as it keeps CPE management out of the way of domestic routing. Since Hub 3.0 has telephony sockets, one or more top blocks could be used for VoIP for example.

Hopefully the days of trialing and the NDAs that seem to go with it will soon be over and we'll know the address assignment with certainty. The friendly and helpful symmetry at the level of /56 seems highly likely though, since that's determined by RIPE allocations.

Morgaine.

"If it only does IPv4, it is broken." -- George Michaelson, APNIC.

Dagger2 · ‎05-11-2018

Interesting. Two prefixes is a bit weird but not necessarily wrong; even though 2a02:8800:f000:: is unreachable from the internet it may still have some valid purpose (VoIP/IPTV/management?). Both of those prefixes are marked "Autonomous address conf.: No" so your router won't configure itself an address from either of them.

However there's "Stateful address conf.: Yes" and "Stateful other conf.: Yes" which indicates that you should be able to fetch an address by DHCPv6. I don't know if pfSense will do that automatically (and to get v6 on your LAN rather than just your WAN interface, you'd also need to do a DHCPv6-PD request to get a routed block -- RAs don't provide any indication of whether you can do that so you basically just have to blindly try it.)

I'm still not completely convinced we'll see v6 on Virgin this side of 2020, but it looks like there's some justification for a bit of optimism.

TonyJr · ‎05-11-2018

@Morgaine wrote:
What you folks are logging is very interesting from the standpoint of IPv6 address planning. I like the symmetry between Virgin's and BT's /25 IPv6 RIPE allocations, which hopefully will help us keep our multi-homed systems tidy, avoiding excessive wear and tear on the brain 😛 :
BT prefix : 2a00:2380::/25 -- https://www.bgpview.io/asn/2856#prefixes-v6
VM prefix : 2a02:8880::/25 -- https://www.bgpview.io/asn/5089#prefixes-v6
As I described back in September in answer to @Adduxi, if our /56 delegations come out of those large /25 blocks then the leading 6 hex digits (6*4 = 24 bits) of our addresses will always be 2a00:23 (BT) or 2a02:88 (VM), and the 25th bit will always be a 1 (never a 0), so our 7th hex digit will always be in the range from '8' through to 'f'. Simple and tidy.
That 7th hex digit and the next 7 digits will be the varying part of our individual /56 prefixes (6 + 1 + 7 = 14 hex digits == 14*4 = 56 bits), so the addressing layout I described in that post applies nearly identically to Virgin. However, there appears to be a difference in the schemes chosen for CPE management assignments, as Virgin seems to have chosen Block fd instead of Block 01 --- I'm going to assume that this means that they've assigned the top 3 /64 blocks for management or other predefined uses, namely Block fd through Block ff (although engineers prefer powers of 2 so Block fc might be pre-allocated too).
So here's a guess at our forthcoming IPv6 assignments but this time using VM's prefix. As before, a delegation of /56 provides 256 blocks of /64:
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xx00::/64 - Block 00 - Probably on CPE's LAN interface and switch
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xx01::/64 - Block 01 - First block available for domestic routing
.... 249 more /64 blocks
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxfb::/64 - Block fb - Last block available for domestic routing
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxfc::/64 - Block fc - Unknown use, possibly reserved, or free
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxfd::/64 - Block fd - CPE management, possibly WAN routing too
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxfe::/64 - Block fe - Unknown use, possibly reserved
2a02:88xx:xxxx:xxff::/64 - Block ff - Unknown use, possibly reserved
If this is indeed Virgin's general IPv6 assignment scheme for customer delegations then I actually prefer it to BT's, as it keeps CPE management out of the way of domestic routing. Since Hub 3.0 has telephony sockets, one or more top blocks could be used for VoIP for example.
Hopefully the days of trialing and the NDAs that seem to go with it will soon be over and we'll know the address assignment with certainty. The friendly and helpful symmetry at the level of /56 seems highly likely though, since that's determined by RIPE allocations.
Morgaine.

Calm down, calm down! The important part for you to remember is to keep a few fireworks aside to celebrate native IPv6 connectivity being granted to you. I hope you didn't burn them all already 😱😱. 😉

TonyJr

Morgaine · ‎06-11-2018

Oh dear, thanks for that input, @Dagger2! It forced me to look again when I saw you write "two prefixes", as my guess was based on the normal situation of a single publicly routable prefix being used, ignoring ULAs since they're not publicly routable. I knew that AS5089 had a /25 and a /32 visible in BGPview, but assumed that only the larger /25 was in play for customer allocations.

Sure enough, I misread the two addresses that MichaelL01 logged, and misread them badly. The "fd" digits in the address didn't refer to block fd of a /56 delegation at all but to 2a02:88fd in VM's /25, and the other address isn't even in that prefix but in the lower half of the parent prefix 2a02:8800::/24. That invalidates my guess about Virgin CPE assignments entirely. Sorry, I need a visit to the optician. 😞

Although using two prefixes may be unusual, it does have merit:

• It keeps CPE management addressing entirely separate from customer delegations, at the cost of keeping them in sync.

• It makes all 256 of the /64 blocks of a customer's /56 space available for domestic routing. Not significant, but a benefit nevertheless.

Fortunately the symmetry between VM and BT /25 prefixes still stands, and from my own past experience I will find that useful in multi-homing.

"If it only does IPv4, it is broken." -- George Michaelson, APNIC.

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IPv6 support on Virgin media