Capterra Glossary
Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
IPv6 is the next generation of Internet Protocol (IP), which provides a vast, engineered improvement over its predecessor IPv4. The main benefits of IPv6 are vastly increased address space, integrated security and quality-of-service mechanisms, as well as support for automatic configuration and mobility. A larger addressing space makes it easier to assign IP addresses to networked devices. Another plus of IPv6 is the simplified way in which it allows for hierarchical address allocation.
What Small and Midsize Businesses Need to Know About Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
Internet Protocol addresses are used to assign identifying numbers and locations to devices on the Internet. An IP address is much like a street address. It has two values, an identifier and a locator. The locator is the numerical number assigned to this particular device on this particular network segment. IPv6 was invented as a new protocol to take care of this problem. IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses, which theoretically provide 2128, or 3.4×1038 unique addresses for each device on the Internet. However, several ranges are reserved or set aside from use, so there are actually fewer addresses than this number available for public use.
Related Terms
- Synchronous
- Software as a Service (SaaS)
- Intranet
- Security Orchestration, Automation and Response (SOAR)
- Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Managed Service Provider (MSP)
- Haptics
- WAN (Wide-Area Network)
- Service-oriented Architecture (SOA)
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Chief Information Officer (CIO)
- Security Information and Event Management (SIEM)
- Platform as a Service (PaaS)
- Service-Level Agreement (SLA)
- Scalability
- Data Center
- Authorization
- Multitenancy