Networking Fundamentals

Stateless Address Auto-Configuration (SLAAC)

Stateless auto-configuration uses a concept called Extended Unique Identifier (EUI-64) to generate a unique IP address in conjunction with information that's been obtained from a router and the device's own MAC address. The 64 part of the label refers to the address being 64 bits long in total. For most IPv6 devices, SLAAC is the default option, and this became available in Windows 10.

As a high-level overview of this process, the device requests the network prefix information, pads out and adjusts its own MAC address, and combines the two to form a unique address. Digging deeper into this, the process is as follows:

1. The device sends an ICMP packet to all the routers on the network using a multicast ...