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Re: Why isn't ipv6 backwards compatible ipv4?
by
jib
on 05/03/2011, 10:30:39 UTC
A host that hadn't been upgraded wouldn't be able to communicate with anything that uses your new IP address format. What you're proposing wouldn't be any more backwards-compatible than the current solution of running dual-stack IPv4/IPv6.

Without a traditional IPv4 address you can't communicate with IPv4-only hosts except through some sort of relay. This will always be true no matter how you design the new addresses.