Organization
This book is organized so that a reader familiar with IPv4 can easily learn about the new features in IPv6 by reading Chapter 2 to Chapter 6. These chapters cover what you need to know about addressing, the new IPv6 header, ICMPv6, security, and quality of service (QoS). Chapter 7 to Chapter 10 cover such topics as networking aspects, support of different link-layer services, Mobile IPv6, routing, and the transition mechanisms that make IPv6 interoperable with IPv4. Chapter 11 is a quick-start guide and includes sample implementations of IPv6 stacks tested in my lab. Chapter 11 also offers a short description of how different operating systems are configured for IPv6. Here is a chapter-by-chapter breakdown of the book:
Chapter 1 briefly explains the history of IPv6, gives an overview of the new functionality, and describes some live test and production networks that are already using IPv6.
Chapter 2 describes the new IPv6 header format, with a discussion of each field and a trace file example. It also describes what Extension headers are, what types of Extension headers have been defined, and how they are used.
Chapter 3 explains everything you need to know about the new address format, address notation, address types, international registry services, and prefix allocation.
Chapter 4 describes the new ICMPv6 message format, the IMCPv6 Error messages and Informational messages, and the ICMPv6 header in a trace file. The chapter also discusses the extended functionality ...