IPv4 and IPv6

[dapontes]

Does anyone know the real purpose of this ?

[NoXzema]

Blah blah blah, not enough address space, blah blah, IPv6 has more, blah blah, something to do with more optimized somehow, blah blah.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6

[ResidentBiscuit]

v6 has two more addresses than v4.

[JLBorges]

Straight from the horse's mouth:

The changes from IPv4 to IPv6 fall primarily into the following categories:

o Expanded Addressing Capabilities

IPv6 increases the IP address size from 32 bits to 128 bits, to
support more levels of addressing hierarchy, a much greater
number of addressable nodes, and simpler auto-configuration of
addresses. The scalability of multicast routing is improved by
adding a "scope" field to multicast addresses. And a new type
of address called an "anycast address" is defined, used to send
a packet to any one of a group of nodes.

o Header Format Simplification

Some IPv4 header fields have been dropped or made optional, to
reduce the common-case processing cost of packet handling and
to limit the bandwidth cost of the IPv6 header.

o Improved Support for Extensions and Options

Changes in the way IP header options are encoded allows for
more efficient forwarding, less stringent limits on the length
of options, and greater flexibility for introducing new options
in the future.

o Flow Labeling Capability

A new capability is added to enable the labeling of packets
belonging to particular traffic "flows" for which the sender
requests special handling, such as non-default quality of
service or "real-time" service.

o Authentication and Privacy Capabilities

Extensions to support authentication, data integrity, and
(optional) data confidentiality are specified for IPv6.

RFC 2460 http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2460.txt

[LB]

http://test-ipv6.com/