Operation Manual – IPv6 ManagementH3C S3100 Series Ethernet Switches Chapter 1 IPv6 Configuration1-1Chapter 1 IPv6 ConfigurationNote:z H3C S3100 Series Ethernet Switches support IPv6 management features, but donot support IPv6 forwarding and related features.z The term “router” in this document refers to a router in a generic sense or anEthernet switch running a routing protocol.1.1 IPv6 OverviewInternet protocol version 6 (IPv6), also called IP next generation (IPng), was designedby the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as the successor to Internet protocolversion 4 (IPv4). The significant difference between IPv6 and IPv4 is that IPv6increases the IP address size from 32 bits to 128 bits.1.1.1 IPv6 FeaturesI. Header format simplificationIPv6 cuts down some IPv4 header fields or move them to extension headers to reducethe load of basic IPv6 headers. IPv6 uses a fixed-length header, thus making IPv6packet handling simple and improving the forwarding efficiency. Although the IPv6address size is four times that of IPv4 addresses, the size of basic IPv6 headers is onlytwice that of IPv4 headers (excluding the Options field). For the specific IPv6 headerformat, see Figure 1-1.
