#readwise # IPv6 - Wikipedia  ## Metadata - Author: [[wikipedia.org]] - Full Title: IPv6 - Wikipedia - URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6 ## Summary IPv6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol, which helps identify and locate computers on networks. It became an official Internet Standard in July 2017 after being introduced in 1998. IPv6 features a new packet format that streamlines processing by routers. Its design aims to eliminate the need for network address translation, supporting a more direct communication method. ## Highlights Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the [[Internet Protocol - Wikipedia|Internet Protocol]] (IP), the [communications protocol](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_protocol) that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the [Internet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet). IPv6 was developed by the [Internet Engineering Task Force](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Engineering_Task_Force) (IETF) to deal with the long-anticipated problem of [IPv4 address exhaustion](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4_address_exhaustion), and was intended to replace [[IPv4 - Wikipedia|IPv4]]. In December 1998, IPv6 became a Draft Standard for the IETF, which subsequently ratified it as an [Internet Standard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_Standard) on 14 July 2017. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jj4hz1x2m2cnvbczejhz0rhh)) ^3om3az --- IPv6 is an [[Internet Layer - Wikipedia|Internet Layer]] protocol for [packet-switched](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packet_switching) [internetworking](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internetworking) and provides end-to-end [datagram](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datagram) transmission across multiple IP networks, closely adhering to the design principles developed in the previous version of the protocol, [[IPv4 - Wikipedia|Internet Protocol Version 4]] (IPv4). In addition to offering more addresses, IPv6 also implements features not present in IPv4. It simplifies aspects of address configuration, network renumbering, and router announcements when changing network connectivity providers. It simplifies packet processing in routers by placing the responsibility for packet fragmentation in the end points. The IPv6 [subnet](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subnetwork) size is standardized by fixing the size of the host identifier portion of an address to 64 bits. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jj4j2sdw03nqe5z3zjamj9pf)) ^gi814b --- IPv6 does not implement traditional [IP broadcast](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_IP_address), i.e. the transmission of a packet to all hosts on the attached link using a special *broadcast address*, and therefore does not define broadcast addresses. In IPv6, the same result is achieved by sending a packet to the link-local *all nodes* multicast group at address ff02::1, which is analogous to IPv4 multicasting to address 224.0.0.1. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jj4j5rp1hxyrrccrj86b77mz)) ^c3m4xz --- IPv6 hosts configure themselves automatically. Every interface has a self-generated link-local address and, when connected to a network, conflict resolution is performed and routers provide network prefixes via router advertisements. Stateless configuration of routers can be achieved with a special router renumbering protocol. When necessary, hosts may configure additional stateful addresses via [[DHCPv6|Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol version 6]] (DHCPv6) or static addresses manually. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jj4j7rs43570zdx44de6zhm1)) ^0oyakm --- Like IPv4, IPv6 supports globally unique [IP addresses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_address). The design of IPv6 intended to re-emphasize the end-to-end principle of network design that was originally conceived during the establishment of the early Internet by rendering [[Network address translation - Wikipedia|network address translation]] obsolete. Therefore, every device on the network is globally addressable directly from any other device. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jj4j9wxbvyzf89dsfpj2px43)) --- A stable, unique, globally addressable IP address would facilitate tracking a device across networks. Therefore, such addresses are a particular privacy concern for mobile devices, such as laptops and cell phones. To address these privacy concerns, the SLAAC protocol includes what are typically called "privacy addresses" or, more correctly, "temporary addresses". Temporary addresses are random and unstable. A typical consumer device generates a new temporary address daily and will ignore traffic addressed to an old address after one week. Temporary addresses are used by default by Windows since XP SP1, macOS since (Mac OS X) 10.7, Android since 4.0, and iOS since version 4.3. Use of temporary addresses by Linux distributions varies. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01jj4jb67pxkh14vqvyadtk9be)) ^tfs01r ---