DHCPv6 prefix delegation client implementation is split between Control Plane and Data Plane.
Data Plane can also be used alone by external application (external Control Plane) using Data Plane Binary API.

Number of different IA_PDs managed by VPP is currently limited to 1 (and corresponding IAID has value 1).
Client ID is of type DUID-LLT (Link Layer address plus time) and is created on VPP startup from avaliable interfaces (or chosen at random for debugging purposes).
Server ID is only visible to Data Plane. Control Plane identifies servers by a 32-bit handle (server_index) mapped to Server ID by Data Plane.

Control Plane

DHCPv6 PD clients are configured per interface.
When configuring a PD client we have to choose a name of a prefix group for that client.
Each prefix obtained through this client will be flagged as belonging to specified prefix group.
The prefix groups are used as a filter by prefix consumers.

To enable client on particular interface call Binary API function dhcp6_pd_client_enable_disable with param 'sw_if_index' set to that interface, 'prefix_group' set to prefix group name and 'enable' set to true.
Format of corresponding Debug CLI command is: "dhcp6 pd client <interface> [disable]"

To add/delete IPv6 address potentially using available prefix from specified prefix group call Binary API command ip6_add_del_address_using_prefix with parameters:

sw_if_index - software interface index of interface to add/delete address to/from prefix_group - name of prefix group, prefix_group[0] == '\0' means no prefix should be used address - address or suffix to be used with a prefix from selected group prefix_length - subnet prefix for the address is_add - 1 for add, 0 for remove

or Debug CLI command with format: "set ip6 addresses <interface> [prefix group <n>] <address> [del]"

When no prefix is avaliable, no address is physically added, but is added once a prefix becomes avaliable.
Address is removed when all available prefixes are removed.
When a used prefix is removed and there is other available prefix, the address that used the prefix is reconfigured using the available prefix.

There are three debug CLI commands (with no parameters) used to show the state of clients, prefixes and addresses:
show ip6 pd clients
show ip6 prefixes
show ip6 addresses

Example configuration

set int state GigabitEthernet0/8/0 up dhcp6 pd client GigabitEthernet0/8/0 prefix group my-dhcp6-pd-group set ip6 address GigabitEthernet0/8/0 prefix group my-dhcp6-pd-group ::7/64

Data Plane

First API message to be called is dhcp6_clients_enable_disable with enable parameter set to 1.
It enables DHCPv6 client subsystem to receive UDP messages containing DHCPv6 client port (sets the router to DHCPv6 client mode).
This is to ensure client subsystem gets the messages instead of DHCPv6 proxy subsystem.

There is one common Binary API call for sending DHCPv6 client messages (dhcp6_pd_send_client_message) with these fields:

msg_type - message type (e.g. Solicit) sw_if_index - index of TX interface server_index - used to dentify DHCPv6 server,

unique for each DHCPv6 server on the link, value obrtained from dhcp6_pd_reply_event API message, use ~0 to send message to all DHCPv6 servers

param irt - initial retransmission time param mrt - maximum retransmission time param mrc - maximum retransmission count param mrd - maximum retransmission duration for sending the message stop - if non-zero then stop resending the message, otherwise start sending the message T1 - value of T1 in IA_PD option T2 - value of T2 in IA_PD option prefixes - list of prefixes in IA_PD option

The message is automatically resent by Data Plane based on parameters 'irt', 'mrt', 'mrc' and 'mrd'.
To stop the resending call the same function (same msg_type is sufficient) with 'stop' set to 1.

To subscribe for notifications of DHCPv6 messages from server call Binary API function
want_dhcp6_pd_reply_events with enable_disable set to 1
Notification (dhcp6_pd_reply_event) fileds are:

sw_if_index - index of RX interface server_index - used to dentify DHCPv6 server, unique for each DHCPv6 server on the link msg_type - message type T1 - value of T1 in IA_PD option T2 - value of T2 in IA_PD option inner_status_code - value of status code inside IA_PD option status_code - value of status code preference - value of preference option in reply message prefixes - list of prefixes in IA_PD option

Prefix is a struct with with these fields:

prefix - prefix bytes prefix_length - prefix length valid_time - valid lifetime preferred_time - preferred lifetime