Computer Network

IPv6:-
The network layer protocol in the TCPIIP protocol suite is currently IPv4 (Internetworking
Protocol, version 4). IPv4 provides the host-to-host communication between systems in the
Internet. Although IPv4 is well designed, data communication has evolved since the inception of
IPv4 in the 1970s. IPv4 has some deficiencies (listed below) that make it unsuitable for the fast-
growing Internet.
o Despite all short-term solutions, such as subnetting, classless addressing, and NAT, address
depletion is still a long-term problem in the Internet.
o The Internet must accommodate real-time audio and video transmission. This type of
transmission requires minimum delay strategies and reservation of resources not provided in the
IPv4 design.
o The Internet must accommodate encryption and authentication of data for some applications.
No encryption or authentication is provided by IPv4.
To overcome these deficiencies, IPv6 (Internetworking Protocol, version 6), also known as IPng
(Internetworking Protocol, next generation), was proposed and is now a standard. In IPv6, the
Internet protocol was extensively modified to accommodate the unforeseen growth of the
Internet. The format and the length of the IP address were changed along with the packet format.
Related protocols, such as ICMP, were also modified. Other protocols in the network layer, such
as ARP, RARP, and IGMP, were either deleted or included in the ICMPv6 protocol . Routing
protocols, such as RIP and OSPF were also slightly modified to accommodate these changes.
Advantages
The next-generation IP, or IPv6, has some advantages over IPv4 that can be summarized as
follows:
o Larger address space. An IPv6 address is 128 bits long, . Compared with the 32-bit address of
IPv4, this is a huge increase in the address space.
o Better header format. IPv6 uses a new header format in which options are separated from the
base header and inserted, when needed, between the base header and the upper-layer data. This
simplifies and speeds up the routing process because most of the options do not need to be
checked by routers.
o New options. IPv6 has new options to allow for additional functionalities.

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o Allowance for extension. IPv6 is designed to allow the extension of the protocol if required by
new technologies or applications.
o Support for resource allocation. In IPv6, the type-of-service field has been removed, but a
mechanism (called flow label) has been added to enable the source to request special handling of
the packet. This mechanism can be used to support traffic such as real-time audio and video.
o Support for more security. The encryption and authentication options in IPv6 provide
confidentiality and integrity of the packet.
Packet Format:- The IPv6 packet is shown in Figure 1. Each packet is composed of a
mandatory base header followed by the payload. The payload consists of two parts: optional
extension headers and data from an upper layer. The base header occupies 40 bytes, whereas the
Extension headers and data from the upper layer contain up to 65,535 bytes of information.

Figure 1 IPv6 datagram header and payload

o Flow label. The flow label is a 3-byte (24-bit) field that is designed to provide special

handling for a particular flow of data. We will discuss this field later.

o Payload length. The 2-byte payload length field defines the length of the IP datagram
excluding the base header.

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Figure 2 Format ofan IPv6 datagram

o Next header. The next header is an 8-bit field defining the header that follows the base header

in the datagram. The next header is either one of the optional extension headers used by IP or the
header of an encapsulated packet such as UDP or TCP. Each extension header also contains this
field. Table 1 shows the values of next headers. Note that this field in version 4 is called the
protocol.

Table 1 Next header codes for IPv6

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o Hop limit. This 8-bit hop limit field serves the same purpose as the TIL field in IPv4.
o Source address. The source address field is a 16-byte (128-bit) Internet address that identifies
the original source of the datagram.
o Destination address. The destination address field is a 16-byte (128-bit) Internet address that
usually identifies the final destination of the datagram. However, if source routing is used, this
field contains the address of the next router.
Priority:-
The priority field of the IPv6 packet defines the priority of each packet with respect to other
packets from the same source. For example, if one of two consecutive datagrams must be
discarded due to congestion, the datagram with the lower packet priority will be discarded. IPv6
divides traffic into two broad categories: congestion-controlled and noncongestion-controlled.
Congestion-Controlled Traffic If a source adapts itself to traffic slowdown when there is
congestion, the traffic is referred to as congestion-controlled traffic. For example, TCP, which
uses the sliding window protocol, can easily respond to traffic. In congestion-controlled traffic, it
is understood that packets may arrive delayed, lost, or out of order. Congestion-controlled data
are assigned priorities from 0 to 7.
Noncongestion-Controlled Traffic This refers to a type of traffic that expects minimum delay.
Discarding of packets is not desirable. Retransmission in most cases is impossible. In other
words, the source does not adapt itself to congestion. Real-time audio and video are examples of
this type of traffic.
Priority numbers from 8 to 15 are assigned to noncongestion-controlled traffic. Although there
are not yet any particular standard assignments for this type of data, the priorities are usually
based on how much the quality of received data is affected by the discarding of packets. Data
containing less redundancy (such as low-fidelity audio or video) can be given a higher priority
(15). Data containing more redundancy (such as high-fidelity audio or video) are given a lower
priority (8).
Flow Label:-
A sequence of packets, sent from a particular source to a particular destination, that needs special
handling by routers is called a flow of packets. The combination of the source address and the
value of the flow label uniquely defines a flow of packets.
To a router, a flow is a sequence of packets that share the same characteristics, such as traveling
the same path, using the same resources, having the same kind of security, and so on. A router

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that supports the handling of flow labels has a flow label table. The table has an entry for each
active flow label; each entry defines the services required by the corresponding flow label. When
the router receives a packet, it consults its flow label table to find the corresponding entry for the
flow label value defined in the packet. It then provides the packet with the services mentioned in
the entry.
Comparison Between IPv4 and IPv6 Headers

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