Writer: Joe Davies

Summary

Due to recent concerns over the impending depletion of the current pool of Internet addresses and the desire to provide additional functionality for modern devices, an upgrade of the current version of the Internet Protocol (IP), called IPv6, has been standardized. This new version, called IP version 6 (IPv6), resolves unanticipated IPv4 design issues and takes the Internet into the 21st Century.

This paper describes the problems of the IPv4 Internet and how they are addressed by IPv6, IPv6 addressing, the new IPv6 header and its extensions, the IPv6 replacements for the Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) and Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP), neighboring node interaction, IPv6 address autoconfiguration, and IPv6 routing. This paper provides a foundation of Internet standards-based IPv6 concepts and is intended for network engineers and support professionals who are already familiar with basic networking concepts and TCP/IP.

For a WebCast version of this white paper, click here.

Included in This Document

• Introduction

• IPv6 Addressing

• IPv6 Header

• ICMPv6

• Multicast Listener Discovery

• Neighbor Discovery

• Address Autoconfiguration

• IPv6 Routing

Related Links

• Microsoft IPv6 Web page
• IPv6 Transition Technologies
• IPv6 Protocol for Microsoft Windows: Frequently Asked Questions

Download

IPv6
1 MB
Microsoft Word file
Updated: Jan 11, 2008