Posted On: Nov 15, 2022
Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) now supports two new addresses for the default gateway router for IPv6. With this launch, we now support the following address formats: $SUBNET::1 and FE80:EC2::1. These addresses can be used for static router configuration and within applications that are restricted to communicate with only global unicast addresses (GUA).
With IPv4, we support a static subnet based address ($SUBNET.1) for the default gateway router. Before today, we were able to support a Link-Local MAC based address for IPv6 that was dependent on the MAC address of the router. With this address, customers had to wait for a Router Advertisement to derive the gateway router address before configuring next hop information for their applications.
With the support of the $SUBNET::1 address, we now have created parity with the IPv4 gateway router address, have made it possible to enable applications to communicate with ‘GUA-only’ addresses. FE80:EC2::1 is a static address in the Link-Local range allowing simple upfront configuration for applications. Both eliminate the need to wait for a Neighbor Advertisement to discover the address, and both support backwards compatibility in that they will resolve to the Link-Local MAC address in their response.
This feature is now available in the Amazon Web Services China (Beijing) Region, operated by Sinnet and Amazon Web Services China (Ningxia) Region, operated by NWCD. For more information, please visit the VPC user guide.