FEATURE OF THE IPv6

In my previous post I am just introduced the IPv6, its Feature and the challenges to Internet . Now in this post I am going to explain the feature of the IPv6.  It has too many exciting features. Like:-

•Addressing

•Header

•Security

•Privacy

•Autoconfiguration

•Routing

•Quality of Service

1> Addressing

      IPv6 addresses are hexadecimal, and are made up of eight pairs of octets

separated by colons (:). IPv6 address is followed by a slash and the number of bits that represent the prefix. It Expands the addressing and routing capabilities of the internet. It has 128-bit addresses. Multicast routing is now scalable with "Scope" field. It defines the usage of "Anycast" addressing. 

An anycast address is a unicast address that is attached to more than one

interface. If a packet is sent to an anycast address it will be delivered to the

nearest interface with that address, with the definition of “nearest” depending

on the protocol used for routing. If the protocol is RIPv6, the nearest interface

will be the one which is the shortest number of hops away.

Anycast addresses can only be assigned to routers, and packets cannot

originate from an anycast address.

(if you want to know about the Anycast then click here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anycast#Addressing_methodologies ) 

2>Header

      The basic unit of data sent through an internet is called a packet in IPv6. It has Simplified header format. Some IPv4 fields dropped or made optional.  In IPv6 header packets it is twice the size of IPv4 header, even though address is four times a IPv4 address. 

Extension headers

–“Options” are now placed in separate headers

–“Options” are now any length

–Router doesn’t have to look at most “Options”..

General description of fields in an IPv6 packet header :-

Ver The version of the IP protocol that created the packet. For

IPv6, this field has a value of 6.

Traffic Class An 8-bit value which indicates the priority that a packet

should be given.

Flow Label A 20-bit value which indicates the data flow to which this

packet belongs. This flow may be handled in a particular

way.

Payload Length The length of the user data portion of the packet. If the data

payload is larger than 64 kB, the length is given in the

optional “Jumbo Payload” header and the Payload Length

header is given a value of zero.

Next Header A number which indicates the type of header that

immediately follows the basic IP header. This header type

may be an optional IPv6 extension header, a relevant IPv4

option header, or another protocol, such as TCP or ICMPv6.

The IPv6 extension header values are:

0 (Hop-by-Hop Options Header)

43 (IPv6 Routing Header)

44 (IPv6 Fragment Header)

50 (Encapsulating Security Payload)

51 (IPv6 Authentication Header)

59 (No Next Header)

60 (Destination Options Header).

Hop Limit A field which is the equivalent of the IPv4 Time To Live field,

measured in hops.

Source IP address The 128-bit IPv6 address of the sender.

Destination IP address The 128-bit IPv6 address of the recipient.

Optional extension headers The optional headers, which give less-frequently used information.

3>Authentication and Privacy

    –Basic requiredsupport for authentication and data integrity

      –Basic support for Payload encryption

      –Support for Header and payload encryption 

4>Auto-configuration

  It has Self-configuring nodes for local links–Auto-configuration for site links

   And its Stateless uses “Router Advertisement”.

       •Cost savings

       •Home market potential

5>Source Routing 
     It  support Source Demand Routing Protocol (SDRP). In this the senders can specifies the routes of the packets. Destination can return packet via same route.

6>Route Aggregation
         –Address Hierarchy
         –Deployed in “Groups”
         –Defined in RFC 2374

Support for IPv6

This section describes the switch’s support for IPv6, and how to configure IPv6

on the switch. Fundamental IPv6 features on the switch are:

■ IPv6 interfaces and addresses

■ Extension header processing

■ Routing table processing

■ RIPv6 (RIPng)

■ Neighbour discovery

■ Stateless Address Autoconfiguration

■ IPv6 filtering

■ IPv6 fragmentation

■ IPv6 multicasting, which is described in



■ Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP6)

■ IPsec and ISAKMP,

The switch also supports the following upper layer protocols:


■ UDP, which transports RIPv6 packets
■ TCP, which transports Telnet requests
■ ICMPv6, which is used for stateless address autoconfiguration, neighbour
discovery, Ping and Trace Route requests.
Integration of IPv6 with IPv4 is provided by:
■ 6-to-4 support
■ IPv6 static tunnelling.
Many of these features are performed automatically by the switch, and most
commands operate in a similar manner to their IPv4 equivalents.

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