What is IPv6?
Last Updated : 31 Jul, 2025
The next generation Internet Protocol (IP) address standard, known as
IPv6, is meant to work in cooperation with IPv4. To communicate with other
devices, a computer, smartphone, home automation component, Internet of
Things sensor, or any other Internet-connected device needs a numerical
IP address.
Because so many connected devices are being used, the original IP
address scheme, known as IPv4, is running out of addresses. This new IP
address version is being deployed to fulfil the need for more Internet
addresses. With 128-bit address space, it allows 340 undecillion unique
address space. IPv6 support a theoretical maximum of 340, 282, 366, 920,
938, 463, 463, 374, 607, 431, 768, 211, 456.
Representation of IPv6
An IPv6 address consists of eight groups of four hexadecimal digits
separated by ' . ' and each Hex digit representing four bits so the total
length ofIPv6is128bits.
IPV6-Representation
[Link]
The first 48 bits represent Global Routing Prefix. The next 16 bits represent
the student ID and the last 64 bits represent the host ID. The first 64 bits
represent the network portion and the last 64 bits represent the interface id.
Global Routing Prefix: The Global Routing Prefix is the portion of an
IPv6 address that is used to identify a specific network or subnet within
the larger IPv6 internet. It is assigned by an ISP or a regional internet
registry (RIR).
Student Id: The portion of the address used within an organization to
identify subnets. This usually follows the Global Routing Prefix.
Host Id: The last part of the address, is used to identify a specific host
on a network.
Example: 3001:0da8:75a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334
Types of IPv6 Address
Now that we know about what is IPv6 address let’s take a look at its
different types.
Unicast Addresses : Only one interface is specified by the unicast
address. A packet moves from one host to the destination host when it
is sent to a unicast address destination.
Multicast Addresses: It represents a group of IP devices and can only
be used as the destination of a datagram.
Any cast Addresses: The multicast address and the any cast address
are the same. The way the any cast address varies from other
addresses is that it can deliver the same IP address to several servers
or devices. Keep in mind that the hosts do not receive the IP address.
Stated differently, multiple interfaces or a collection of interfaces are
assigned an any cast address.
Difference between IPv6 and IPv4
IPv6 was developed to overcome the limitations of IPv4, offering more
address space, simplified headers, and improved efficiency.
IPv6 IPv4
IPv6 has a 128-bit address length. IPv4 has a 32-bit address length.
It supports Auto and renumbering address It Supports Manual and DHCP address
configuration. configuration.
The address space of IPv6 is quite large it
It can generate 4.29×109 address space.
can produce 3.4×1038 address space.
Address Representation of IPv6 is in Address representation of IPv4 is in
hexadecimal. decimal.
In IPv6 checksum field is not available. In IPv4 checksum field is available.
IPv6 has a header of 40 bytes fixed. IPv4 has a header of 20-60 bytes.
IPv4 supports VLSM(Variable Length
IPv6 does not support VLSM.
subnet mask).
Advantages
Faster Speeds: IPv6 supports multicast rather than broadcast in
[Link] feature allows bandwidth-intensive packet flows (like
multimedia streams) to be sent to multiple destinations all at once.
Stronger Security: IPSecurity, which provides confidentiality, and data
integrity, is embedded into IPv6.
Routing efficiency
Reliability
Most importantly it's the final solution for growing nodes in Global-
network.
The device allocates addresses on its own.
Internet protocol security is used to support security.
Enable simple aggregation of prefixes allocated to IP networks; this
saves bandwidth by enabling the simultaneous transmission of large
data packages.
Disadvantages
Conversion: Due to widespread present usage of IPv4 it will take a long
period to completely shift to IPv6.
Communication: IPv4 and IPv6 machines cannot communicate directly
with each other.
Not Going Backward Compatibility: IPv6 cannot be executed on IPv4-
capable computers because it is not available on IPv4 systems.
Conversion Time: One significant drawback of IPv6 is its inability to
uniquely identify each device on the network, which makes the
conversion to IPV4 extremely time-consuming.
Cross-protocol communication is forbidden since there is no way for
IPv4 and IPv6 to communicate with each other.