Introduction to IPv6
Let’s start with simple explanation of the new format. As you may know, the new-generation-IP talk started in the early 1990s when we were slowly running out of IP addresses. We had quite a few proposals for the new address format but in 1995 IPv6 was selected and the RFCs were officially entered into the RFC repository. IPv6 was created based off of IPv4 with some of the useful IPv4 features carried over to IPv6. There were many changes to the new IP format, however, and I will list some of them here below. Expanded Addressing Capabilities : IPv6 address size increased from 32 bits to 128 bits. Because of the increased size the new address will support a higher number of nodes, more levels of addressing hierarchy, and a much simpler autoconfiguration of addresses for remote users. A new address type was created, called anycast . Header Format Simplification : To simplify the entire IP format, some of the IPv4 header fields were dropped or made optional in IPv6. Fl...