IPv6 Addressing Architecture.

Ipv6 Addressing Architecture

When anyone thinks of the Network or Super Information Highway, they all think of a huge networking cluster with several interconnected computers. This huge networking cluster is made up of commercial users, colleges and universities, government and non-profit organizations, home computers, and the list could go on and on. However, no one ever imagined the type of growth and expansion we have seen over the years with internetworking. This rapid growth and expansion has brought the need for a new IP protocol, which could accommodate the larger address fields in the header.

In the Internet protocol version 6 (Ipv6), the addresses are 128 bits long, which allows for a much greater number of addressable nodes and a higher level of addressing hierarchy. Ipv4 address depletion is one of the main reasons for the need of a new Internet Protocol. The number of bits in the address increased from 32 bits in Ipv4 to 128 bits in Ipv6.

With the ability of having addresses, which can be up to 128 bits long, with provide space to sub diving the available addresses into hierarchy of routing domains that reflect the Internet's topology. Ipv6 will also all the addresses of network interfaces, which connect devices to the network. Ipv6 features an inherent capability to resolve address at their lowest level, which is at the network interface level, and also has auto-configuration capabilities.

There are three conventional forms used to represent the Ipv6 addresses as text strings. 128-bit Ipv6 addresses are usually represented as eight 16-bit hexadecimal numbers separated by a period. There must be at least one numeral in each of the eight fields, while the fields with a value of "0000" can be compressed by suppressing the leading zeros. The following string represents a valid Ipv6 address...