Similar to many of the solutions proposed to extend the life of the IPv4 address space, a variety of proposal exist for the purpose of translating IPv6 to IPv4 addresses as a method of migrating networks to IPv6. The common thread with these solutions is that rather than use the dual-stack or tunneling techniques outlined […]

A variety of different tunneling techniques already exist for the purpose of interconnecting IPv6 networks using the infrastructure provided by existing IPv4 networks. For example, imagine if a company were to deploy IPv6 in two of their offices. Using various tunneling methods, the company could interconnect these offices over an IPv4-based network such as an […]

The dual stack technique is likely to become quite common as companies make the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. As the name suggests, this method involves running both IPv4 and IPv6 protocol stacks on network equipment such as hosts and routers until the transition to a purely IPv6 network can be completed. Under this scenario, […]

Throughout this section there have been clues as to how hosts, and specifically interfaces, obtain their IPv6 addresses. The three methods by which an IPv6 host can obtain an IP address include stateless autoconfiguration, statefulautoconfiguration, or manually.
Stateless autoconfiguration is the easiest IPv6 address allocation method available. When used, stateless autoconfiguration uses the network prefix information […]

On an IPv6 network, a number of important functions happen using discovery processes. These include the discovery of neighboring devices and routers, as well as the maximum transmission unit (MTU) that is supported between a source and destination host. Some of these concepts are similar to ones found on an IPv4 network, while others represent […]

Must like the reserved Class D address space in IPv4, IPv6 dedicates some of its address space to multicast traffic, albeit a much larger portion. If you recall, a multicast transmission is one in which a single transmission is received by many systems, or a one-to-many technique. In IPv6, multicasts use the prefix FF00::/8. Common […]

IPv6 also defines an entirely new type of address and transmission, known as an “anycast”. Simply put, an anycast address is a standard IPv6 global address that is assigned to a number of different interfaces on different systems. When a packet is destined for an anycast address, the “closest” device to the sender will process […]

Like in the world of IPv4, a unicast transmission represents data meant for a single destination address only. However, IPv6 uses a few different types of unicast addresses for different purposes. These include global, site-local, link-local, and IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses. Each is outlined below.
Global Unicast Address. Very similar in function to an IPv4 unicast address […]

If you’ve been working with IPv4 for some time now, you may already be familiar with subnet masks and how they work to segment the IPv4 address space into subnets. In the IPv6 world, subnetting works somewhat differently, relying on a dedicated field within an IPv6 address. While the next section will look at the […]

As mentioned in my last article, an IPv6 address is 128 bits in length, represented in hexadecimal. Much like a MAC address, an IPv6 address is broken down into 2-byte (16-bit) sections separated by a colon; the major difference being that an IPv6 address includes 8 of these sections rather than 3 with a MAC […]