In IPv6

IPv6

Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...

 networking, prefix delegation is used to assign a network address prefix to a user site, configuring the user's router with the prefix to be used for each LAN. This is one of the methods for delegating IPv6 address prefixes to an IPv6 subscriber's network (or "site"). It is described by RFC 3769.

With the advent of IPv6 protocol, there is a need for a delegation mechanism which will automate the process of configuring networking equipment with appropriate prefixes at the customer's site.

Though IPv6 enables simple and automatic host configuration it does not provide specification to automatically delegate a prefix to routers. DHCPv6

DHCPv6

DHCPv6 is the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol for IPv6. Although IPv6's stateless address autoconfiguration can also be used to acquire IPv6 access, DHCPv6 may be a more suitable solution to assign addresses, nameservers and other configuration information as being done today with DHCP for IPv4...

 is used for the automatic configuration of IPv6 nodes. In the DHCPv6 protocol DHCPv6 servers send the network configuration parameters to IPv6

IPv6

Internet Protocol version 6 is a version of the Internet Protocol . It is designed to succeed the Internet Protocol version 4...

 node

Node (networking)

In communication networks, a node is a connection point, either a redistribution point or a communication endpoint . The definition of a node depends on the network and protocol layer referred to...

s.