3.1. Scope Comparisons

Multicast destination addresses have a 4-bit scope field that controls the propagation of the multicast packet. The IPv6 addressing architecture defines scope field values for interface-local (0x1), link-local (0x2), admin-local (0x4), site-local (0x5), organization-local (0x8), and global (0xE) scopes (Section 2.7 of [RFC4291]).

Use of the source address selection algorithm in the presence of multicast destination addresses requires the comparison of a unicast address scope with a multicast address scope. We map unicast link-local to multicast link-local, unicast site-local to multicast site-local, and unicast global scope to multicast global scope. For example, unicast site-local is equal to multicast site-local, which is smaller than multicast organization-local, which is smaller than unicast global, which is equal to multicast global. (Note that IPv6 site-local unicast addresses are deprecated [RFC4291]. However, some existing implementations and deployments may still use these addresses; they are therefore included in the procedures in this specification. Also, note that ULAs are considered as global, not site-local, scope but are handled via the prefix policy table as discussed in Section 10.6.)

We write Scope(A) to mean the scope of address A. For example, if A is a link-local unicast address and B is a site-local multicast address, then Scope(A) < Scope(B).

This mapping implicitly conflates unicast site boundaries and multicast site boundaries [RFC4007].