rce (IETF) has developed a suite of protocols and standards known as IP version 6 (IPv6). New services, such as multimedia, require globally unique addressing. IPv6, with its very large address space will guarantee a unique IP address for each device. The characteristics of IPv6 can be expressed and mapped by means of the FP concept. Numbering Plan Hierarchical addresses. New services, such as multimedia, require globally unique addressing. IPv6, with its very large address space (over 3.4 X 1038 possible combinations) will guarantee a unique IP address for each device. IP addresses will also be allocated to interplan- etary traffic. Network address translation is not necessary (IPv4 addresses have become relatively scarce, forcing some organizations to use a network address translator (NAT) to map multiple private addresses to a single public IP address. While NATs promote reuse of the private address space, they do not support standards-based network layer security or the correct mapping of all higher layer protocols and can create problems when connecting two organizations that use the private address space.) IPv4 headers and IPv6 headers are not interoperable. A host or router must use an implementation of both IPv4 and IPv6 in order to recognize and process both header formats. The new IPv6 header is only twice as large as the IPv4 header, even though IPv6 addresses are four times as large as IPv4 addresses. IPv6 has a 128-bit address space 3 X 1038 addresses IPv4 has a 32-bit address space 4 billion addresses Security Plan Private communication over a public medium like the Internet requires encryption services that protect the data being sent from being viewed or modified in transit. Understanding Changing Telecommunications - Building a Successful Telecom Business Although a standard now exists for providing security for IPv4 packets (known as Internet Protocol security or IPSec), this standard is optional and proprietary solutions are prevalent. Support for IPSec is an IPv6 protocol suite requirement. Th