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IPv6 Addressing: Prefixes, Scopes & Address Types

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IPv6 addressing: designed for a world without NAT

IPv6 has 3.4 × 10³⁸ addresses — enough to give every grain of sand on Earth a billion addresses. The design philosophy: every device gets a globally routable address, eliminating NAT.

This means every interface gets multiple addresses: a link-local (for local network operations), a global unicast (for internet communication), and optionally a ULA (for predictable internal addressing). Understanding when each is used explains IPv6 routing behavior.

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