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This article, titled ³Learning about the IPv6 header, Part 1: Basic differences between IPv4 header
and IPv6 header´, will explain the IPv6 header from the basics. In the next article, we will look at
advanced features of IPv6 and try to understand them through our knowledge of the IPv6 header.

IPv6 is an improved version of the current Internet Protocol, IPv4. However, it is still an Internet
Protocol. A protocol is a set of procedures for communications. In Internet Protocol, information such
as IP addresses of the sender and the receiver of the data packet is placed in front of the data. This
information is called ³header´. This is similar to specifying the addresses of the sender and the
recipient when you send a package by mail.

Let¶s first compare the header of IPv4 and IPv6. Figure 1 shows IPv4 header, and IPv6 header is
shown in Figure 2.

Figure 1 IPv4 Header

Figure 2 IPv6 Header

One feature of IPv6 that immediately comes to our mind is huge address space. This refers to the fact
that, among many elements shown in Figure 1 and 2, the Source Address and the Destination
Address has each been expanded from 32 bits to 128 bits. If you just think in terms of pure
combination of numbers, there used to be 232 possible ways to represent addresses, but now there
are 2128 possible ways to represent them.

However, if you compare Figures 1 and 2 again, you will realize that although IPv6 uses four times
more digits to express the addresses of the source and the destination, length of the header has not
increased much from that of IPv4. This is because header format has been simplified in IPv6. You can
see that among many elements (called ³field´) shown in Figure 1, those shown in red do not exist in
Figure 2.

One of the important changes is that there is no Options field in Figure 2. In IPv4, Options field can be
used to add information about various optional services. For example, information related to
encryption can be added here. Because of this, the length of the IPv4 header changes according to
the situations. Due to this difference in length, routers that control communications according to the
information in the IP header can¶t judge the length of the header just by looking at the beginning of the
packet. This makes it difficult to speed up packet processing with hardware assist.

On the other hand, IPv6 moves information related to additional services to a section called extension
header. The part shown in Figure 2 is called basic header. Therefore, for plain packets, IP header
length is fixed to 40 bytes. In terms of making it easier to process packets with hardware, you can say
that IPv6 can be accelerated much easier than IPv4.

Another field that exists in Figure 1 but is absent from Figure 2 is the Header Checksum field. A
Header Checksum is a number used to check for errors in header information, and is calculated using
the numbers in the header. However, problem with this approach is that header contains a number
called TTL (Time To Live), which changes every time the packet goes through a router. Because of
this, Header Checksum must be recalculated every time the packet goes through a router. If we can
free up routers from this type of calculations, we could reduce the delay. Actually, TCP layer that
resides above IP layer checks errors of various information including sender address and destination
address. Since performing same calculations at the IP layer is redundant and unnecessary, Header
Checksum is removed from IPv6.

Figure 1 contains 8bit field called ³Service Type´. This field is used to represent the priority of the
packet, for example whether it should be delivered express or with normal speed, and allows
communication devices to handle the packet accordingly. Service Type field is composed of TOS
(Type of Service) field and Precedence field. TOS field specifies the type of service and contains cost,
reliability, throughput, delay, or security. Precedence field specifies the level of priority using eight
levels from 0 to 7. IPv6 provides the same function with a field called Traffic Class.

Flow Label field has a 20 bits length, and is a field newly established for IPv6. By using this field,
packet¶s sender or intermediate devices can specify a series of packets, such as Voice over IP, as a
flow, and request particular service for this flow. Even in the world of IPv4, some communication
devices are equipped with the ability to recognize traffic flow and assign particular priority to each
flow. However, these devices not only need to check the IP layer information such as address of the
sender and the destination, but also need to check the port number which is an information that
belongs to a higher layer. Flow Label field attempts to put together all these necessary information
and provide them at the IP layer. However, specifics on how to use it is still undecided.

As we have seen in this article, IPv6 aims to provide intelligent transmission framework that is easy to
handle for intermediate devices by keeping the basic header simple and fixed length. c
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