Re: IPv6 terminology question

[Joel Jaeggli <joelja@bogus.com>]

Daniel Stickney wrote:
>> Daniel,
>>
>> This is defined in RFC4291 "IPv6 Addressing Architecture" Section 2.2 "Text Representation of Addresses".  It says:
>>
>>    1. The preferred form is x:x:x:x:x:x:x:x, where the 'x's are one to
>>       four hexadecimal digits of the eight 16-bit pieces of the address.
>>       Examples:
>>
>>          ABCD:EF01:2345:6789:ABCD:EF01:2345:6789
>>
>>          2001:DB8:0:0:8:800:200C:417A
>>
>>       Note that it is not necessary to write the leading zeros in an
>>       individual field, but there must be at least one numeral in every
>>       field (except for the case described in 2.).
>>
>> The closest thing to a definition would be to call them "field"s.  For example, "an IPv6 address is made up of 8 colon separated fields".
>>
>> Bob
>>
>> p.s. Suggest in the future, try reading the actual specifications.  
>>
> 
> I appreciate your input Bob.
> 
> What term do you all normally use in your discussions with other
> engineers? I'm fine with "field", just haven't heard or seen anyone else
> use it yet.

A book that I performed a review on covering this subject states:

"IPv6 addresses are written in 8 groups of 16 bits each, or 8 groups of
4 hexadecimal numbers separated by colons." - Goralski, "The Illustrated
Network" 2009

I'm comfortable with that being sufficiently unambiguous, modula you
have to skip to the next paragraph to get abbreviation.

> Thanks,
>