Internet Protocol version 6
<networking, protocol> (IPv6, IPng, IP next generation) The most viable candidate to replace the current
Internet Protocol.
The primary purpose of IPv6 is to solve the problem of the shortage of IP addresses.
The following features have been purposed: 16-byte addresses instead of the current four bytes; embedded
encryption - a 32-bit
Security Association ID (SAID) plus a variable length initialisation vector in
packet headers; user
authentication (a 32-bit SAID plus variable length
authentication data in headers); autoconfiguration (currently partly handled by
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol); support for delay-sensitive traffic - a 24 bit flow ID field in headers to denote voice or video, etc.
One possible solution is based on the
TUBA protocol (RFC 1347, 1526, 1561) which is itself based on the
OSI Connectionless Network Protocol (CNLP).
Another is
TP/IX (RFC 1475) which changes
TCP and
UDP headers to give a 64-bit
IP address, a 32-bit
port number, and a 64 bit sequence number.
RFC 1550 is a white paper on IPng.
IPv6.org (http://www.ipv6.org/).
["Doubts About IPng could create TCP/IP chaos", Johna Till Johnson, Data Communications, Nov 1994].
