Internet Protocol version 6

networking, protocol (IPv6, IPng, IP next generation) The

most viable candidate to replace the current InternetProtocol. 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 ConfigurationProtocol); 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.

["Doubts About IPng could create TCP/IP chaos", Johna Till

Johnson, Data Communications, Nov 1994].

(1995-04-03)