<div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Mon, 10 Aug 2026 at 05:29, Mark Smith <<a href="mailto:markzzzsmith@gmail.com">markzzzsmith@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div dir="ltr"><div>I think a field in IPv6 RAs needs to be renamed, however when I've thought about it more, even Router Advertisements should be renamed, because they do more than just advertise routers.<br><br>That's not realistic now given how prevalent "Router Advertisement" terminology is. However, in the intro I've discussed what RAs are really doing and how it may be worth remembering to think about what they're actually doing.</div></div></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><span style="background-color:transparent">From <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4861/#section-3">https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4861/#section-3</a>:</span></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><font face="monospace">     Router Advertisement: Routers advertise their presence together<br></font><font face="monospace">                with various link and Internet parameters either<br></font><font face="monospace">                periodically, or in response to a Router Solicitation<br></font><font face="monospace">                message.  Router Advertisements contain prefixes that<br></font><font face="monospace">                are used for determining whether another address shares<br></font><font face="monospace">                the same link (on-link determination) and/or address<br></font><font face="monospace">                configuration, a suggested hop limit value, etc.</font></blockquote><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">It's not advertising routers, it's a router advertising its capability of reaching particular things and the parameters needed to use it -- you're under no obligation to use it, it's just there if you want it. That's how I've always understood it, anyway. That's backed up by <a href="https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4861/#section-4.2">https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc4861/#section-4.2</a> because (unlike DHCP, which is a service) it's advertising capability, not authority. </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">You somewhat cover that in your draft:</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><blockquote style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex" class="gmail_quote"><font face="monospace">Given the far more general purpose of IPv6 RAs, the name Router Advertisements itself is inaccurate. They not only announce a router to nodes on a link, they also announce a number of other link and subnet specific IPv6 parameters.</font></blockquote><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Indeed, they're saying "if you use me, you'll need to understand my MTU, and where I can reach" -- otherwise they would be "routing advertisements" not "router advertisements". </div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:arial,helvetica,sans-serif">M</div></div></div>