thinQmaster Virtual testing partner Adaptive practice exams that find your weak spots and drill them. Every answer explained. From $69
Enroll

thinQmaster

Find your exam

Five questions free, before you decide.

Step 1 · choose a vendor

In one of our camps? Your practice exams come with the tuition — they are on your study page already.

Networking Fundamentals · Intermediate

IPv6 Subnetting

Dividing an IPv6 prefix into smaller prefixes, normally on nibble boundaries and almost always ending with /64 LANs.

Definition

Because /64 subnets hold 2^64 addresses, IPv6 subnetting is about organizing networks rather than conserving host addresses. Subnetting on 4-bit (nibble) boundaries keeps prefixes readable in hexadecimal. Point-to-point links may use /127, and loopbacks /128.

Example

A /48 can be split into 256 /56 prefixes, one per branch, each holding 256 /64 subnets.

Exam tip

SLAAC requires a /64; using a longer prefix on a LAN breaks autoconfiguration.

Related terms