Which IPv6 address represents the most compressed form of the IPv6 address 2001:0db8:cafe:0100:0f0d:0000:0000:00AA/96?

The most compressed form of the given IPv6 address, 2001:0db8:cafe:0100:0f0d:0000:0000:00AA/96, is represented as 2001:db8:cafe:100:f0d::AA/96. This compression is achieved through two primary mechanisms inherent to the IPv6 addressing scheme.

First, leading zeros in each hextet can be omitted. In the case of the original address, the hextets "0db8" can be shortened to "db8," "0100" becomes "100," and "0000" can be entirely omitted. This leads to the partially compressed form 2001:db8:cafe:100:f0d:0:0:AA.

Second, IPv6 allows for the use of a double colon (::) to represent contiguous sections of zeroes, but it can only be used once in any given IPv6 address to avoid ambiguity. In this case, the longest running segment of zeroes, "0000," can be replaced with "::".

Thus, in the compressed address 2001:db8:cafe:100:f0d::AA/96, you see the maximum