
156 Part Two • IPv6 Protocols
8.4.4 IPv4-COMPATIBLE ADDRESSES
When IPv4 addresses are encapsulated within IPv6 addresses, a “mixed”
format is allowed, in which the IPv4 portion of the address can be
represented in standard dotted quad form, while the rest of the address is
formatted as a standard IPv6 address, resulting in this form.
XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:XXXX:ddd.ddd.ddd.ddd
These addresses were originally defined to fall into two categories.
IPv4-compatible IPv6 address The IPv6 transition mechanisms (see RFC
2893, “Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers”) include
a technique for hosts and routers to dynamically tunnel IPv6 packets
over