The Promise of IPv6
Let's finish off this chapter with a quick review of what the features offered by the design of IPv6 are.
Simplicity and Flexibility
IPv6's scalability, the darling of many press releases, is perhaps best broken into two capabilities. First, the capability of the protocol to rise to the task of addressing and routing both the existing and the future Internet. We think everyone can agree that IPv6 has been engineered with this in mind, by allowing lots of address space for hosts and countering the routing problems with a more hierarchical address space, while being flexible enough for future developments. Second, the ability of the protocol to be extended naturally to meet future, as yet unknown, requirements. A very important component of this is the Extension Headers facility.
Mobility and Security
IPv6 offers significant mobility and security features which, unfortunately, by their nature, are not as simple as might be desired. While support for IPsec is widely available, configuring for interoperability can be tricky. Mobility is at an earlier stage of development, and while implementations are available, full implementations are not yet widely shipped.
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