Communication between networked computers requires a system for providing specific addresses to all attached devices. This allows computers to exchange information with connected devices and guarantees that the correct networked computer will receive the requested information. Providing a guaranteed delivery address alleviates flooding the network with spurious data to ensure the delivery of multimedia data to the correct computer.

Ipv4 is the current Internet Protocol, which was designed in 1981. This protocol uses a 32 bit address system, which provides approximately 4.2 billion unique addresses. The current growth of devices connected to the Internet is rapidly depleting the number of available network addresses. To help conserve network addresses, devices connected to the Internet through routers are treated as part of a sub-network with special addresses. Network address translation is needed to link the router subnets with the primary network connection.

Ipv6 is the next generation Internet Protocol which was formulated in 1996. It uses a 128 bit address system, which will provide a tremendous number of network addresses. ( 2 to the 128^th power ) The updated Internet Protocol supports mandatory network security features that include IP encryption and authentication. A new information format for data packets was also designed, which reduces the processing time for header data contained in the packets. Sub-networks for devices attached to routers or network address translation will no longer be required.

The process of encoding or streaming of multimedia will not be affected using the improved Internet Protocol. The primary goal of this improved Internet Protocol is to increase the network address capacity for connected devices and provide enhanced network communication security.

The initial requirement for integration of Ipv6 network support is the adoption and implementation of this new Protocol by all Internet service providers. This will require the firmware upgrade and configuration of all network routers.

The next requirement will be the need for each device connected to the Internet to be made compatible for supporting the improved Internet Protocol. This compatibility will require the modification of the operating system module that supports network communications.

The last requirement is for the multimedia server software to be modified to support this updated Internet Protocol. This will be essential for the delivery of data to the correct network destination.

Users can experiment with this improved Internet Protocol support using one of several free service providers. These providers create network tunnels to specially configured routers that allow computers to interact using the improved Internet Protocol. Users can find a current list of Ipv6 providers using the Google search engine.

The use of Ipv6 will not affect the process of delivering streaming multimedia. It will provide a greater number of network addresses, with incorporated security enhancements. Computers and devices operating behind network routers will not be required to translate addresses from subnets to the primary network. This will speed up data delivery and prevent the need for computer users to configure office or home network routers.