Although it is true that some fields of the IPv4 header remain for the new IP protocol version, others have also been added to accomplish new functionalities. Particularly the field that enables the identification of IP flows, named flow label, which opens new possibilities for the handling of QoS over Internet.
The field ‘Total Lengh’which is part of the IPv4 header, is not found in the IPv6 header. Its function was to count the size of the packet payload plus the size of a variable lenght header. As the IPv6 header has a fixed size, the presence of this field is unnecessary.