Comment by IgorPartola
5 days ago
No it is not:
IPv4 header: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/60/IP...
IPv6 header: https://bitjunkie.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/ipv6-Header...
Notice how the IPv6 header is simpler? That’s because it is. It has normal working semantics, got rid of fragmentation, TTL is replaced by hop limit, and link-local addresses actually work as intended. The addresses look scary != more complicated. Please stop perpetuating this myth.
If IPv6 were just an improved header and a longer address I'd be perfectly happy with it. I wasn't discussing either point you raised.
That is literally all it is. There is nothing else to it. You get P2P connections and a longer address. The rest is what they removed from the protocol, not what was added.
SLAAC is a huge and complex part of IPv6. Higher reliance on ICMPv6 is also a big part of it. Networking stacks for IPv6 are also more complex, especially if you want to support SLAAC, requiring things like multiple IPs on every machine by default, and so on. The very fact that you have to choose between static IP, SLAAC, and DHCPv6 is another complication - if the choice is even there, as some major devices don't support DHCPv6 (Android).
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