Unique header structure of IPv6 technology

IPv6 is our new specification for the next-generation Internet. Through this specification, we have improved some shortcomings of the existing network. A new system and organization are in urgent need of the Internet, especially when IP addresses are insufficient. We will introduce the features of this technology.

Technical Features of IPv6

What are the significant advantages of IPv6 over IPv4?

Compared with IPv4, IPv6 has the following significant advantages:

1) The address capacity is greatly expanded from the original 32-bit to 128-bit, which completely solves the problem of IPv4 address insufficiency. the hierarchical address structure is supported to facilitate addressing; extended support for multicast and any multicast address, which allows data packets to be sent to any node or group of nodes;

2) large-capacity address space can be automatically configured with stateless addresses, enabling IPv6 terminals to quickly connect to the network without manual configuration, achieving real plug-and-play;

3) The Header Format is greatly simplified, which effectively reduces the overhead of the router or switch for header processing, which is very beneficial to the vro or switch designed for hardware header processing;

4) Enhanced support for Extended Headers and options. This not only makes forwarding more effective, but also provides full support for loading new applications on the network in the future;

5) The use of stream tags allows us to provide personalized network services for the data packet type, and effectively ensure the service quality of related services;

6) authentication and Privacy: IPv6 uses IPSec as a required protocol to ensure the integrity and confidentiality of end-to-end communication at the network layer;

7) IPv6 has made many improvements in mobile networks and real-time communication. In particular, unlike IPv4, IPv6 has powerful automatic configuration capabilities, which simplifies system management for mobile hosts and local networks.

Header Structure

What is the header structure of IPv6 technology?

The structure of the new IPv6 Header is much simpler than that of IPv4. The IPv6 Header deletes many uncommon fields in the IPv4 header and adds them to the option and header extension; the options in IPv6 are more strictly defined. IPv4 has 10 fixed-length domains, 2 address spaces, and several options. IPv6 only has 6 domains and 2 address spaces.

Although the IPv6 Header occupies 40 bytes, It is 1.6 times that of the 24-byte IPv4 header, but because of its fixed length, the IPv4 header is longer), it does not need to consume too much memory capacity.

Header length in IPv4), service type of service, TOS), identifier identification), flag), segment offset fragment offset) and header checksum) these six domains are deleted. Total Packet length), protocol type), and time to live, TTL) the names or functions of the three domains are changed, and the options function is changed completely, two new domains are added, namely priority and flow tag.

The following table compares the specific IPv4 and IPv6 protocol headers.

Table 1 IPv4 Header Format
4bit version	4-bit Header Length	8bit service type	16-bit Packet Length
Identifier 16bit)			Flag (4bit)	Segment offset 12bit)
8 bit survival time)		8 bit transmission protocol)	Header checksum and 16bit)
Source IP address 32bit)
Destination IP address 32bit)
Option 24bit)					Fill (8bit)

Table 2 ipv6 Header Format
4bit version	4bit priority	24bit stream tag
Net charge length (16 bits)			Next header (8bit)	HOP limit (8bit)
Source IP address 128bit)
Destination IP address 128bit)