What is IPv6
nternet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is Internet Layer protocol for packet-switched internetworks and the Internet.
IPv6 has a much larger address space than IPv4. This is based on the definition of a 128-bit address, whereas IPv4 used only 32 bits. The new address space thus supports 2128 (about 3.4×1038) addresses. This expansion provides flexibility in allocating addresses and routing traffic and eliminates the need for network address translation (NAT). NAT gained wide-spread deployment as an effort to alleviate IPv4 address exhaustion.
IPv6 also implements new features that simplify aspects of address assignment (stateless address autoconfiguration) and network renumbering (prefix and router announcements) when changing Internet connectivity providers. The IPv6 subnet size has been standardized by fixing the size of the host identifier portion of an address to 64 bits to facilitate an automatic mechanism for forming the host identifier from Link Layer media addressing information (MAC address).
Network security is integrated into the design of the IPv6 architecture. Internet Protocol Security (IPsec) was originally developed for IPv6, but found wide-spread optional deployment first in IPv4 (into which it was back-engineered). The IPv6 specifications mandate IPsec implementation as a fundamental interoperability requirement.
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