IPv4 and IPv6 Differences
The details of the fragmentation mechanism, as well as the overall architectural approach to fragmentation, are different between IPv4, the first official version of the Internet Protocol, and IPv6, the newer version. In IPv4, routers perform fragmentation, whereas in IPv6, routers do not fragment, but drop the packets that are larger than the MTU. Though the header formats are different for IPv4 and IPv6, analogous fields are used for fragmentation, so the algorithm can be reused for fragmentation and reassembly.
In IPv4, hosts must make a best-effort attempt to reassemble fragmented IP datagrams with a total reassembled size of up to 576 bytes - equal to the minimum MTU for IPv4. They may also attempt to reassemble fragmented IP datagrams larger than 576 bytes, but they are also permitted to silently discard such larger datagrams. In IPv6, this minimum capability is increased to 1280 bytes - larger than the minimum MTU for IPv4.
Read more about this topic: IP Fragmentation
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