Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the proposed successor to IPv4, the first publicly used version of the Internet protocol developed in 1981. The Internet operates by independently sending small packets of data across networks identified by the Internet Protocol. The data packets themselves include numeric addresses that correspond to the packet’s origin and destination devices.

Due to the growth and expansion of the Internet, there is a need for more addresses than the current protocol, IPv4, is able to handle. While IPv6 can support a greater number of numerical addresses, 2,128 (approximately 340 undecillion or 3.4×1038 addresses) versus IPv4’s 232 (approximately 4,294,967,296 addresses), it will be a lengthy process to deploy IPv6 worldwide.

Other benefits of IPv6 include stateless address autoconfiguration and network renumbering, neither which are present in IPv6. Additionally, network security is integrated into the design of the IPv6 architecture, and its specification mandate support for IPsec (IP security) as a fundamental interoperability requirement. IPv6 is still in its infancy stages of global deployment.