Hdr Ext Len          8-bit unsigned integer.  Length of the Hop-by-
                        Hop Options header in 8-octet units, not
                        including the first 8 octets.

   Options              Variable-length field, of length such that the
                        complete Hop-by-Hop Options header is an integer
                        multiple of 8 octets long.  Contains one or more
                        TLV-encoded options, as described in section
                        4.2.

   The only hop-by-hop options defined in this document are the Pad1 and
   PadN options specified in section 4.2.





 
RFC 2460                   IPv6 Specification              December 1998


4.4  Routing Header

   The Routing header is used by an IPv6 source to list one or more
   intermediate nodes to be "visited" on the way to a packet's
   destination.  This function is very similar to IPv4's Loose Source
   and Record Route option.  The Routing header is identified by a Next
   Header value of 43 in the immediately preceding header, and has the
   following format:

    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |  Next Header  |  Hdr Ext Len  |  Routing Type | Segments Left |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
    |                                                               |
    .                                                               .
    .                       type-specific data                      .
    .                                                               .
    |                                                               |
    +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

   Next Header          8-bit selector.  Identifies the type of header
                        immediately following the Routing header.  Uses
                        the same values as the IPv4 Protocol field
                        [RFC-1700 et seq.].

   Hdr Ext Len          8-bit unsigned integer.  Length of the Routing
                        header in 8-octet units, not including the first
                        8 octets.

   Routing Type         8-bit identifier of a particular Routing header
                        variant.

   Segments Left        8-bit unsigned integer.  Number of route
                        segments remaining, i.e., number of explicitly
                        listed intermediate nodes still to be visited
                        before reaching the final destination.

   type-specific data   Variable-length field, of format determined by
                        the Routing Type, and of length such that the
                        complete Routing header is an integer multiple
                        of 8 octets long.

   If, while processing a received packet, a node encounters a Routing
   header with an unrecognized Routing Type value, the required behavior
   of the node depends on the value of the Segments Left field, as
   follows:







 
RFC 2460                   IPv6 Specification              December 1998


      If Segments Left is zero, the node must ignore the Routing header
      and proceed to process the next header in the packet, whose type
      is identified by the Next Header field in the Routing header.

      If Segments Left is non-zero, the node must discard the packet and
      send an ICMP Parameter Problem, Code 0, message to the packet's
      Source Address, pointing to the unrecognized Routing Type.

   If, after processing a Routing header of a received packet, an
   intermediate node determines that the packet is to be forwarded onto
   a link whose link MTU is less than the size of the packet, the node
   must discard the packet and send an ICMP Packet Too Big message to
   the packet's Source Address.