Chapter 8. IP Version 6

The original IP version 4 protocol, specified by RFC 760 in January 1980, was replaced by RFC 791 in September 1981. IP version 6 was originally specified by RFC 1883 in December 1995. Presently, IP version 6 uses the RFC 2460 specification. IP version 6 was therefore referred to as IP the Next Generation (IPng).

Although the IP version 4 was robust at the time of its publication in 1981, it did not anticipate several Internet advances including:

  • The recent exponential growth of the Internet and the impending exhaustion of the IP version 4 address space
  • The need for simpler configuration
  • The requirement for security at the IP level
  • The need for better support for real-time delivery of data, also called quality of service

IP ...

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