Subject: Learning about IPv8 and IPv16

From: "Jim Fleming" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 13 Mar 1999 02:23:33 -0600

People sometimes write, asking how they can learn
more about IPv8 and IPv16. I am often surprised that
they do not know anything about IPv4 and are trying
to first learn IPv6. My first suggestion for anyone trying
to understand IPv8 and/or IPv16 is to learn IPv4...once
you do that, IPv8 and IPv16 are trivial...especially, if
you keep these things in mind as you learn IPv4...

1. The 4-bit version field tells a lot about a packet...
2. IPv4 packet HEADER can be viewed as a series of BITS...
3. The left 2 bits of the 4-bit version field tell a lot about the
version...as follows...

00 - ???
01 - IPv4 (or IPv6)
10 - IPv8
11 - IPv8 with options following header

4. In IPv16 we drop the entire 4-bit version field...it is not needed...it
is wasteful...

...the rest is easy...

JF