IPv6 network protocol status picture

No matter which protocol standard it is, it can be developed only when it meets people's needs. At present, IPv6 network protocols are not as expected, because a large number of currently used devices support IPv4, therefore, communication operators must fully consider how to evolve to IPv6. IPv6 will be implemented at the network application layer and transport layer, IPv6 devices also need IPv4 support on the backbone network. In this way, the interconnection and compatibility between IPv6 and IPv4 protocols need to be fully considered and resolved. taking full account of this transitional issue, it also supports three main technologies: Double stack, tunnel, and conversion ｡

Dual-stack Technology: New IPv6 devices can be backward compatible with IPv4, while IPv4 devices can be programmed using IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks, the dual-stack host can send and receive IPv4 and IPv6 data, and the dual-Stack Router can forward any package ｡

Tunneling Technology: A packet is transmitted between two IPv6 domains through an IPv4 network. Therefore, a dual-stack node uses an IPv4 header to encapsulate an IPv6 packet. Then, the packet is routed through an IPv4 network (Tunnel, until the second IPv6 domain is reached. After the IPv4 header is removed from the second node, the packet is processed accordingly ｡

Conversion Technology: To solve the interoperability problem between IPv6 and IPv4 versions, a converter must be used to generate a destination address containing IPv4 addresses, but it uses an IPv6-encoded datagram. an IPv6 computer sends the datagram to the converter. The Converter uses IPv4 to communicate with the destination site. After receiving a response from the destination site, converts an IPv4 datagram to an IPv6 datagram and sends it back to the IPv6 origin site ｡

IPv6 network protocol features

Compared with IPv4, IPv6 has two attractive features: one is the 128-bit address format used by the IPv6 network protocol, and the other is the 32-bit address format, therefore, IPv6 increases the address space by 296, and IPv6 is more capable of supporting mobile data services, it will become one of the important protocols for the third generation mobile communication in the future. At the same time, IPv6 overcomes and solves some shortcomings and problems in IPv4. For example, IPv4 does not take into account the rapid development of Internet services, IPv6 simplifies the IP Header Format and provides data flow labels, it provides a simple method for transmitting headers, which can greatly shorten the processing time of packet headers in Routers. IPv6 supports automatic Address Configuration, security protection, authentication, and encryption, without human intervention, the host can directly connect all the information required by the Internet ｡

IPv6 maintains many successful IPv4 features. IPv6 still supports connectionless transmission; allows the sender to select the size of the datagram; requires the sender to specify the maximum number of hops before the datagram arrives at the destination site, in addition, IPv6 also adds the following five new features:

◆ Larger address space ｡

◆ Flexible Header Format ｡

◆ Network resources can be pre-allocated ｡

◆ Simplified the protocol ｡

◆ Protocol extensions are supported ｡

In the IPv6 network protocol, a huge address range must also make it easy for Internet administrators to read and manipulate these addresses. IPv4 uses the "dotted decimal notation" (dotted decimal notation) it is not convenient enough. Therefore, IPv6 designers recommend that you use colon hexadecimal notation to represent each 16-bit value in hexadecimal notation, separate them with a colon ｡

IPv6 has three basic address types: unicast address, cluster address, and multicast address. unicast is a traditional point-to-point communication, select a shortest path for the datagram to reach the destination site. The cluster indicates that the destination is a set of computers that share a network address, select a shortest path for the datagram and pass it to the nearest member of the group. multicast is a point-to-point communication, that is, the destination site is a group of computers, they can be transmitted to each member of the group through hardware multicast or broadcast in different places ｡

With the development of the Internet, more and more people will access the Internet worldwide, and the lack of IP Address resources will become the bottleneck restricting its development. In addition, with the rapid development of mobile communication, operators urgently need to reduce network costs, only in this way can we ensure the continuous development of new businesses so that we can take the initiative in the competition. The emergence and development of next-generation networks exactly offers such an important opportunity, IPv6 represents the next generation of Internet protocols and is the core technology of the next generation of networks, its development prospects are huge. Although IPv4 and IPv6 will coexist for a long period of time, it will eventually transition to the IPv6 network protocol ｡