Section 2.1. General Header Structure


2.1. General Header Structure

In IPv6, five fields from the IPv4 header have been removed:

  • Header Length

  • Identification

  • Flags

  • Fragment Offset

  • Header Checksum

The Header Length field was removed because it is not needed in a header with a fixed length. In IPv4, the minimum header length is 20 bytes, but if options are added, it can be extended in 4-byte increments up to 60 bytes. Therefore, with IPv4, the information about the total length of the header is important. In IPv6, options are defined in Extension headers (covered later in this chapter).

The Identification, Flags, and Fragment Offset fields handle fragmentation of a packet in the IPv4 header. Fragmentation happens if a large packet has to be sent over a network that supports only smaller packet sizes. In that case, the IPv4 router splits the packet into smaller slices and forwards multiple packets. The destination host collects the packets and reassembles them. If only one packet is missing or has an error, the whole transmission has to be redone; this is very inefficient. In IPv6, a host learns the Path Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) size through a procedure called Path MTU Discovery . If a sending IPv6 host wants to fragment a packet, it will use an Extension header to do so. IPv6 routers along the path of a packet do not provide fragmentation as they did with IPv4. So the Identification, Flags, and Fragment Offset fields were removed from the IPv6 header and will be inserted in an Extension header by the source host if needed. I explain Extension headers later in this chapter.

Path MTU Discovery is explained in Chapter 4.


The Header Checksum field was removed to improve processing speed. If routers do not have to check and update checksums, processing becomes much faster. At the time when IPv4 was developed, checksumming at the media access level wasn't common, so the checksum field in the IPv4 header made sense. Today, the risk for undetected errors and misrouted packets is minimal. There is also a checksum field at the transport layer (UDP and TCP). With IPv4, a UDP checksum is optional; with IPv6, a UDP checksum is mandatory. IP is a best-effort delivery protocol ; it is the responsibility of upper layer protocols to ensure integrity.

The Traffic Class field replaces the "Type of Service" field. IPv6 has a different mechanism to handle preferences. Refer to Chapter 6 for more information.

The Protocol Type and "Time-to-Live" (TTL) fields were renamed and slightly modified. A Flow Label field was added.



IPv6 Essentials
IPv6 Essentials
ISBN: 0596100582
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 156
Authors: Silvia Hagen

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