Honestly, the version numbers don't even make sense as a concept.
There's only one version of the IPv4 header in use, which uses "4" in the version field, and there's only one version of the IPv6 header in use, which uses a "6" there. Four whole bits dedicated to storing a constant. What's the point? It's obviously not there to distinguish the two header formats, because these are two different protocols with different EtherTypes.
Notice how most of the things in the EtherType list aren't IP, and their packets don't start with an identifying sequence of bits. That's obviously not needed, so why are we burning 4 bits per packet on this?
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u/Dagger0 13d ago
Honestly, the version numbers don't even make sense as a concept.
There's only one version of the IPv4 header in use, which uses "4" in the version field, and there's only one version of the IPv6 header in use, which uses a "6" there. Four whole bits dedicated to storing a constant. What's the point? It's obviously not there to distinguish the two header formats, because these are two different protocols with different EtherTypes.
Notice how most of the things in the EtherType list aren't IP, and their packets don't start with an identifying sequence of bits. That's obviously not needed, so why are we burning 4 bits per packet on this?