 | Copyright © 2008, Juniper Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademark Notice. | |
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is designed to eventually supersede IP version 4 (IPv4). The intent of this design change is not to take a radical step away from IPv4, but to enhance IP addressing and maintain other IPv4 functions that work well.
The differences between IPv4 and IPv6 include the following:
IPv6 increases the size of the IP address from 32 bits to 128 bits. This increased size provides a larger address space and a much larger number of addressable nodes.
Reducing some common processing costs associated with packet handling and streamlining the bandwidth cost of the larger IPv6 header, some IPv4-specific header fields either no longer exist or are now optional in the IPv6 header.
The ability to label packets for specific traffic flows exists in the IPv6 packet. These labels allow for nondefault quality of service (QoS) or the possibility of “real-time” services.
Authentication provides the ability to use extensions for some authentication and data integrity applications.
IPv6 continues to provide the basic packet delivery service for all TCP/IP networks. As a connectionless protocol, IPv6 does not exchange control information to establish an end-to-end connection before transmitting data. Instead, just like its IPv4 predecessor, IPv6 continues to rely on protocols in other layers to establish the connection if connection-oriented services are required and to provide error detection and error recovery.
In addition to supporting a revised header structure and an expanded addressing format, the E-series router supports the following IPv6 features:
| Copyright © 2008, Juniper Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. Trademark Notice. | |