Classless Inter-Domain Routing
An IP address is interpreted as composed of two parts: a network-identifying prefix followed by a host identifier within that network. In the previous classful network architecture, IP address allocations were based on the bit boundaries of the four octets of an IP address. An address was considered to be the combination of an 8, 16, or 24-bit network prefix along with a 24, 16, or 8-bit host identifier respectively. Thus, the smallest allocation and routing block contained only 256 addresses—too small for most enterprises, and the next larger block contained addresses—too large to be used efficiently even by large organizations. This led to inefficiencies in address use as well as inefficiencies in routing, because it required a large number of allocated class-C networks with individual route announcements, being geographically dispersed with little opportunity for route aggregation.
IPv6
The fixed header occupies the first 40 octets (320 bits) of the IPv6 packet. It contains the source and destination addresses, traffic classification options, a hop counter, and the type of the optional extension or payload which follows the header. This "Next Header" field tells the receiver how to interpret the data which follows the header. If the packet contains options, this field contains the option type of the next option. The "Next Header" field of the last option, points to the upper-layer protocol that is carried in the packet's payload.