The DHCPv6 service of providing configuration information without address assignment is called “stateless DHCPv6”, because the DHCPv6 server need not maintain any dynamic state about individual clients while providing the service. Stateless DHCPv6 requires only a subset of the DHCPv6 protocol and is significantly easier to implement and deploy. It is anticipated that stateless DHCPv6 will be the primary way in which DHCPv6 is used in IPv6 networks.

Stateless DHCPv6 may be provided through centralized DHCPv6 servers, similar to the deployment of DHCPv4 service. Because stateless DHCPv6 is a relatively simple protocol, it may be provided by a CPE router, using, for example, DNS configuration information configured by the CPE administrator or obtained through DHCPv6 from the ISP. Stateless DHCPv6 service may also be provided by DNS servers, which would respond directly to hosts with DNS configuration information.

The requirements for implementing stateless DHCPv6 are documented in draft-droms-dhcpv6-stateless-guide [Dro02]. This Internet Draft lists the messages and services that must be implemented in servers and hosts to provide stateless DHCPv6 service.