Operation Manual – IPv6 Management
H3C S5600 Series Ethernet Switches
Chapter 1 IPv6 Configuration
1-2
Figure 1-1
Comparison between IPv4 header format and IPv6 header format
II. Adequate address space
The source IPv6 address and the destination IPv6 address are both 128 bits (16 bytes)
long. IPv6 can provide 3.4 x 10
38
addresses to completely meet the requirements of
hierarchical address division as well as allocation of public and private addresses.
III. Hierarchical address structure
IPv6 adopts the hierarchical address structure to quicken route search and reduce the
system source occupied by the IPv6 routing table by means of route aggregation.
IV. Automatic address configuration
To simplify the host configuration, IPv6 supports stateful address configuration and
stateless address configuration.
z
Stateful address configuration means that a host acquires an IPv6 address and
related information from the server (for example, DHCP server).
z
Stateless address configuration means that the host automatically configures an
IPv6 address and related information based on its own link-layer address and the
prefix information issued by the router.
In addition, a host can automatically generate a link-local address based on its own
link-layer address and the default prefix (FE80::/64) to communicate with other hosts
on the link.
V. Built-in security
IPv6 uses IPSec as its standard extension header to provide end-to-end security. This
feature provides a standard for network security solutions and improves the
interoperability between different IPv6 applications.
