IPv6
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) to deal with the long-anticipated problem of IPv4 address exhaustion. IPv6 is intended to replace IPv4. In December 1998, IPv6 became a Draft Standard for the IETF, who subsequently ratified it as an Internet Standard on 14 July 2017.

Devices on the Internet are assigned a unique IP address for identification and location definition. With the rapid growth of the Internet after commercialization in the 1990s, it became evident that far more addresses would be needed to connect devices than the IPv4 address space had available. By 1998, the IETF had formalized the successor protocol. IPv6 uses a 128-bit address, theoretically allowing 2128, or approximately addresses. The actual number is slightly smaller, as multiple ranges are reserved for special use or completely excluded from use. The two protocols are not designed to be interoperable, and thus direct communication between them is impossible, complicating the move to IPv6. However, several transition mechanisms have been devised to rectify this.

IPv6 provides other technical benefits in addition to a larger addressing space. In particular, it permits hierarchical address allocation methods that facilitate route aggregation across the Internet, and thus limit the expansion of routing tables. The use of multicast addressing is expanded and simplified, and provides additional optimization for the delivery of services. Device mobility, security, and configuration aspects have been considered in the design of the protocol.

IPv6 addresses are represented as eight groups, separated by colons, of four hexadecimal digits. The full representation may be shortened; for example, "2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334" becomes "2001:db8::8a2e:370:7334".
Q8795
Internet Protocol
MEDIA
Q132364
communications protocol
Concept
Q75
Internet
Concept
Q217082
Internet Engineering Task Force
ORG
Q1089478
IPv4 address exhaustion
Concept
Q11103
IPv4
MEDIA
Q290378
Internet Standard
MEDIA
Q11135
IP address
Concept
Q749647
interoperable
Concept
Q12333
transition mechanisms
Concept
Q1711430
route aggregation
UNK
Q290066
routing table
Concept
Q82828
hexadecimal
Concept
Q2551624
IPv6
MISC
Q2551624
IPv6
MISC
Q2551624
IPv6
MISC
Q2551624
IPv6
MISC
Q2551624
IPv6
MISC
Q2551624
IPv6
MISC
Q2551624
IPv6
MISC
Q2551624
IPv6
MISC
1998-12-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
December 1998
DATE
2017-07-14T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
14 July 2017
DATE
1990-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1990
DATE
1998-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1998
DATE
2128-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
2128
DATE
+6^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
6
NUMBER
+6^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
6
NUMBER
+6^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
6
NUMBER
+4^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
4
NUMBER
+6^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
6
NUMBER
+4^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
4
NUMBER
+6^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
6
NUMBER
+4^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
4
NUMBER
+6^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
6
NUMBER
+6^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
6
NUMBER
+6^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
6
NUMBER
+6^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
6
NUMBER
+2001^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
2001
NUMBER
0^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
0
NUMBER
+8^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
8
NUMBER
0000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
0000
NUMBER
0000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
0000
NUMBER
0000^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
0000
NUMBER
+8^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
8
NUMBER
+2^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
2
NUMBER
+0370^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
0370
NUMBER
+7334^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
7334
NUMBER
+2001^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
2001
NUMBER
+8^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
8
NUMBER
+8^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
8
NUMBER
+2^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
2
NUMBER
+370^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
370
NUMBER
+7334^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
7334
NUMBER
edition or translation of
replaces
used by