Reply to post: Re: "the standard is for devices to generate (multiple) random addresses"

Microsoft pulls plug on IPv6-only Wi-Fi network over borked VPN fears

SImon Hobson Bronze badge

Re: "the standard is for devices to generate (multiple) random addresses"

If you have, for example, a NAS, it can't really generate random addresses and change them over time, because how would you be able to access it?

mDNS ? Also, a device can have many addresses - indeed it is set out in the specs that devices MUST support multiple addresses. So it's quite easy for a device to have static addresses on which it serves up services, and multiple dynamic addresses it uses for outbound connections.

does Android support DHCPv6 now?

No, and it probably never will. Politics (as well as technical issues) has resulted in overlap between protocols. DHCP cannot (by design) provide router/routing info to hosts - they have to get that from routers via RAs. The official line is to separate addressing/host management from routing/network management because these are often managed by different groups in large organisation. My feeling is that even where that is the case, the two teams CANNOT work in isolation.

But the technical reason why Google won't support DHCPv6 in Android is that it doesn't provide a fast method for revoking leases when the network changes. For a mobile device, the network can change rapidly as a device moves around (handoff between cells, switching between mobile and WiFi. With RAs, the network can be quickly reconfigured by sending RAs for the disconnected addresses with a lifetime of zero - with DHCPv6 there's no such easy mechanism. There is a DHCP6 client for Android - but not from Google.

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