IPv6 was developed to substitute IPv4, as it was expected to run out of addresses.
IPv6 Address
An IPv6 address uses 128 bits.
While IPV4 is represented by decimal numbers, IPv6 uses hexadecimal numbers.
There are 8 blocks of 4 hexadecimal numbers, representing each block 16 bits or 2 bytes. Each block is separated using colons (:).
Example of IPv6 address:
2001:0:9d38:6ab8:1c48:3a1c:a95a:b1c2
The IPv6 loopback address is 0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 or ::1.
IPv6 Features
IPv6 only allows fragmentation in the origin. It does not feature a mechanism equivalent to the Don’t Fragment (DF) bit in IPv4.
A jumbogram is an IPv6 packet that contains a payload higher than 65535 bytes.
IPv6 EUI-65
EUI-65 is an standard published by IEEE that allows a node to autoconfigure or assign automatically its its own IPv6 address. This is done by using the IEEE 802 MAC address of the network card of the own node and the network address prefix /64 to which this node is connected.
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External references
- “Measuring IPv6“
- Steve’s Internet Guide; “IPv6 explained for beginners“
- Microsoft; “Examine IPv6 addresses“, Microsoft
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