Special Use Domain Name 'ipv4only.arpa'
RFC 8880, “Special Use Domain Name 'ipv4only.arpa'”, is a Proposed Standard document published in August 2020 by S. Cheshire, D. Schinazi. It updates RFC 7050. The canonical text is published by the RFC Editor.
Abstract
NAT64 (Network Address and Protocol Translation from IPv6 Clients to IPv4 Servers) allows client devices using IPv6 to communicate with servers that have only IPv4 connectivity.
The specification for how a client discovers its local network's NAT64 prefix (RFC 7050) defines the special name 'ipv4only.arpa' for this purpose. However, in its Domain Name Reservation Considerations section (Section 8.1), that specification (RFC 7050) indicates that the name actually has no particularly special properties that would require special handling.
Consequently, despite the well-articulated special purpose of the name, 'ipv4only.arpa' was not recorded in the Special-Use Domain Names registry as a name with special properties.
This document updates RFC 7050. It describes the special treatment required and formally declares the special properties of the name. It also adds similar declarations for the corresponding reverse mapping names.
What “Proposed Standard” means
An entry-level standards-track specification: stable, peer-reviewed and a solid basis for implementation, though it may still evolve before becoming an Internet Standard.
The canonical text of RFC 8880 is hosted at rfc-editor.org. Available in HTML,TXT,PDF,XML.
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