 Large Address Space

Mainly IPv6 has a larger address space. With IPv4, addresses are getting scarce.
With IPv6, there will not be an address shortage in the foreseeable future.
More Efficient Routing
IPv6 reduces the size of routing tables and makes routing more efficient and hierarchical. IPv6
allows ISPs to aggregate the prefixes of their customers' networks into a single prefix and
announce this one prefix to the IPv6 Internet. In addition, in IPv6 networks, fragmentation is
handled by the source device, rather than the router, using a protocol for discovery of the path's
maximum transmission unit (MTU).
 More Efficient Packet Processing
IPv6's simplified packet header makes packet processing more efficient. Compared with IPv4,
IPv6 contains no IP-level checksum, so the checksum does not need to be recalculated at every
router hop. Getting rid of the IP-level checksum was possible because most link-layer
technologies already contain checksum and error-control capabilities. In addition, most transport
layers, which handle end-to-end connectivity, have a checksum that enables error detection.
 Directed Data Flows
IPv6 supports multicast rather than broadcast. Multicast allows bandwidth-intensive packet flows
(like multimedia streams) to be sent to multiple destinations simultaneously, saving network
bandwidth. Disinterested hosts no longer must process broadcast packets. In addition, the IPv6
header has a new field, named Flow Label, that can identify packets belonging to the same flow.
 Simplified Network Configuration
Address auto-configuration (address assignment) is built in to IPv6. A router will send the prefix
of the local link in its router advertisements. A host can generate its own IP address by
appending its link-layer (MAC) address, converted into Extended Universal Identifier (EUI) 64-
bit format, to the 64 bits of the local link prefix.
 Support For New Services
By eliminating Network Address Translation (NAT), true end-to-end connectivity at the IP layer
is restored, enabling new and valuable services. Peer-to-peer networks are easier to create and
maintain, and services such as VoIP and Quality of Service (QoS) become more robust.
 Security
IPSec, which provides confidentiality, authentication and data integrity, is baked into in IPv6.
Because of their potential to carry malware, IPv4 ICMP packets are often blocked by corporate
firewalls, but ICMPv6, the implementation of the Internet Control Message Protocol for IPv6,
may be permitted because IPSec can be applied to the ICMPv6 packets.

Ipv6 or Internet Protocol version 6 has many different advantages over the older version 4.

The older version was a great design, but the newer version offers features that allow it to keep
up with the speed of the Internet and the millions of users.

One of the main advantages is that of security. There are more encryption and authentication
options in Ipv6. These ensure that networks are overall much more secure and cannot be hacked
into or compromised.

Another advantage is that of a larger address space. This is an improvement of significant bits -
128 versus the 32 bit one from v4. This means that there are more addresses available per person.

There is also better network management and routing efficiency because of the larger subnet
space, as well as hierarchical route aggregation.

In the newer version, the processing has been simplified. Ipv6 routers no longer perform
fragmentation. Instead, it is the host’s job to perform PMTU discovery of end-to-end
fragmentation. The overall packet processing by the routers is more efficient than those in Ipv4.

One of the most significant advantages is that of multicasting. It is no longer difficult for
organizations to get a globally routable multicast group assignment.  This ensures multicast
solutions, embedding rendezvous point addresses, and the overall ease of deployment to inter-
domain solutions.

As the internet grows and more and more users are coming online, a newer version of Internet
Protocol was needed to help with the problems that were going to become noticeable with Ipv4.
With the release of Ipv6, there are noticeable advantages

The world is getting ready to switch to IPv6. In truth, World IPv6 Launch is mostly
symbolic, IPv6 adoption has been growing recently, but it's still a long way from being
meaningful.

This won't change in a day, but it will make a lot more people more aware of the problem, the
dwindling number of available IPv4 addresses, and it will also pave the way for ISPs and
websites wanting to flip the switch later on.

The big reason why IPv6 is needed is that IPv4 addresses have run out. If the internet is to
develop naturally, it is going to need more unique IP addresses. IPv6 solves that.

But this alone probably won't be enough for regular users to want to adopt the new protocol.
Luckily, IPv6 does have some significant advantages over IPv4 even for home users, from
performance to convenience. IPv6 is backwards compatible, but it was designed to overcome
many of IPv4's limitations.

Client-side IP address assignment, no need for DHCP

One interesting feature of IPv6 is that addresses can be assigned automatically and dynamically
by the client device, meaning that there is no need for a DHCP server like there is with IPv4.

This means that you can plug a laptop to your local network, it will get an address prefix from
any router it finds and then generate an IP for itself for that network, based on the hardware
MAC address.

In practice, this means simpler routers and less overhead for managing IP attribution. It will also
mean even less configuration requirements. Of course, you can still assign addresses to devices
via DHCPv6.

Multiple network addresses assigned to the same device

A second interesting feature is the ability to assign two or more addresses to the same device.
You can thus stay connected to several networks at the same time, which is a great boon for
flexibility. Apps will be able to choose the network they need or have access to and you won't
have to choose between networks anymore.

Encryption and IPsec built in

IPv6 also comes with greater security since it has an encryption option built in. This means that
the communications will be secured at the lowest level possible, via IPsec, each packet that gets
sent has to be decrypted for it to be interpreted.

No more checksums, better performance

Also on the technical side, IPv6 gets rid of checksum verification. Since everything or almost
everything sent via IPv6 networks has its own error-control mechanism, there was no need for
one at the IP-level. This clears the overhead added by the need to do checksums at every step,
leading to a more responsive and faster connection.

There are plenty of other improvements and optimizations that should, in the end, lead to more
efficient and faster communications. Still, there's a long way before most of the internet traffic is
carried over IPv6.