Error detection using CRC Extension Header for IPv6 packets over high speed networks

IPv6 has come with a package of advantages including simple header format, very large address space and extensibility. However, IPv6 packets transmission still uses the traditional infrastructure of protocol stacks such as TCP/IP. Thus, the big advantages cannot be taken optimally. One of the limitations of TCP/IP is duplication of error detection code verification and regeneration in Data Link layer. Every router has to verify CRC code at incoming port and regenerate the CRC code at outgoing port before forward an IPv6 packet to the next router. With advance networking technology this is a time consuming task. This paper proposes CRC Extension Header (CEH) to do error detection in Network layer and replaces the current error detection in Data Link layer. In CEH, verification of CRC code is only done in the final destination indicated by destination address field of IPv6 header. Experimentation results showed network latency of IPv6 packets transmission decreases 68%.