IPv6 Networking

IPv6 was designed to deal with the shortcomings of IPv4, mainly the lack of addresses as more and more devices were being brought online.

Written down, the addresses use 8 groups of 4 hexadecimal digits each separated by a colon:

2001:0db8:0000:abcd:0000:0000:0000:7334

• Instead of 32 bits per address IPv6 uses 128 (Aprox. $2^{128}$ addresses)
• Hexadecimal notation
  • Groups are separated by :
  • If there are several zeroes to the left, they can be omitted, like this: 2001:db8:0:abcd:0:0:0:7334
  • If there are multiple groups containing only zeroes follow directly after each other they may be entirely replaced by ::, like this: 2001:db8:0:abcd::7334
• Autoconfigurable: Can configure themselves a value using the MAC
• Without subnet mask: The net part is always the first 4 groups and the rest is the host part.
• Safer: Incorporates security options. IPsec is integrated and allows authentication and to encrypt packets.