that additional room permits more levels of hierarchy inside the address space and a more flexible
address architecture. It also makes routing much more efficient and scalable because the addresses
can be aggregated a lot more effectively. And IPv6 also allows multiple addresses for hosts and
networks. This is especially important for enterprises jonesing for availability. Plus, the new
version of IP now includes an expanded use of multicast communication (one device sending to
many hosts or to a select group), which will also join in to boost efficiency on networks because
communications will be more specific.
IPv4 uses broadcasts very prolifically, causing a bunch of problems, the worst of which is of
course the dreaded broadcast storm-an uncontrolled deluge of forwarded broadcast traffic that can
bring an entire network to its knees and devour every last bit of bandwidth. Another nasty thing
about broadcast traffic is that it interrupts each and every device on the network. When a broadcast
is sent out, every machine has to stop what it's doing and respond to the traffic whether the
broadcast is meant for it or not.
But smile everyone: There is no such thing as a broadcast in IPv6 because it uses multicast traffic
instead. And there are two other types of communication as well: unicast, which is the same as it is
in IPv4, and a new type called anycast. Anycast communication allows the same address to be
placed on more than one device so that when traffic is sent to one device addressed in this way, it
is routed to the nearest host that shares the same address. This is just the beginning-we'll get more
into the various types of communication in the section called "Address Types”
IPv6 Addressing and Expressions
Just as understanding how IP addresses are structured and used is critical with IPv4 addressing, it's
also vital when it comes to IPv6. You've already read about the fact that at 128 bits, an IPv6
address is much larger than an IPv4 address. Because of this, as well as the new ways the
addresses manage. But can be used, you've probably guessed that IPv6 will be more complicated
to no worries! As I said, I'll break down the basics and show you what the address looks like, how
you can write it, and what many of its common uses are. It's going to be a little weird at first, but
before you know it, you'll have it nailed!
So let's take a look at Figure 13.1, which has a sample IPv6 address broken down into sections.
FIGURE 13 .1 IPv6 address example
So as you can now see, the address is truly much larger-but what else is different? Well, first,
notice that it has eight groups of numbers instead of four and also that those groups are separated
by colons instead of periods. And hey wait a second…there are letters in that address! Yep, the
address is expressed in hexadecimal just like a MAC address is, so you could say this address has
eight 16-bit hexadecimal colon-delimited blocks. That's already quite a mouthful, and you
probably haven't even tried to say the address out loud yet!
One other thing I want to point out is for when you set up your test network to play with IPv6,
because I know you're going to want to do that. When you use a web browser to make an HTTP
connection to an IPv6 device, you have to type the address into the browser with brackets around
the literal address. Why? Well, a colon is already being used by the browser for specifying a port
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