TCP/IP Guide

Major Changes and Additions in IPv6

In the preceding overview, I explained that the primary motivation for creating a new version of IP was to fix the problems with addressing under IPv4. But as you also saw, numerous other design goals existed for the new protocol as well. Once the decision was made to take the significant step of creating a new version of a protocol as important as IP, it made sense to use the opportunity to make as many improvements as possible.

Of course, there is still the problem of the pain of change to worry about, so each potential change or addition in IPv6 needed to have benefits that would outweigh its costs. The resulting design does a good job of providing useful advantages while maintaining most of the core of the ...