1-11 IPv6 ConfigurationWhen configuring IPv6, go to these sections for information you are interested in:z IPv6 Overviewz IPv6 Configuration Task Listz IPv6 Configuration Examplez The term “router” in this document refers to a router in a generic sense or an Ethernet switchrunning a routing protocol.z H3C S5600 Series Ethernet Switches support IPv6 management features, but do not support IPv6forwarding and related features.IPv6 OverviewInternet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6), also called IP next generation (IPng), was designed by the InternetEngineering Task Force (IETF) as the successor to Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). The significantdifference between IPv6 and IPv4 is that IPv6 increases the IP address size from 32 bits to 128 bits.IPv6 FeaturesHeader format simplificationIPv6 cuts down some IPv4 header fields or moves them to extension headers to reduce the overhead ofthe basic IPv6 header. IPv6 uses a fixed-length header, thus making IPv6 packet handling simple andimproving the forwarding efficiency. Although the IPv6 address size is four times that of IPv4 addresses,the size of the IPv6 header is only twice that of the IPv4 header (excluding the Options field). For thespecific IPv6 header format, see Figure 1-1.
