IP address
An IP address serves two principal functions. It identifies the host, or more specifically its network interface, and it provides the location of the host in the network, and thus the capability of establishing a path to that host. Its role has been characterized as follows: "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there."
The header of each IP packet contains the IP address of the sending host, and that of the destination host.
IPv6 rapid deployment
The default allocation of IPv6 space by a Regional Internet Registry (RIR) is a 32-bit prefix. Since it takes 32 bits to map an IPv4 address with 6rd, this implies that an ISP would only be able to allocate 64-bit IPv6 prefixes to its customers if it were to use entire IPv4 addresses. 6rd, however, allows any redundant part of an IPv4 address to be discarded: For example, if the IPv4 addresses an ISP issues to its customers all share the same first eighteen bits, a 6rd prefix only need include the remaining fourteen bits. Without this flexibility, Free originally assigned 64-bit IPv6 prefixes to its customers but was able to assign them shorter prefixes once it obtained a larger allocation of IPv6 space (a 26-bit prefix) from the RIPE NCC.