This is a simple mechanism, using DNS to certify that email from your domain comes from authorized servers. This is accomplished by adding a DNS record to identify the servers from which you send legitimate email. Emails sent from other servers MAY then be assumed as forged (SPAM) and blocked by the receiving email server.
NOTE: This can be easily spoofed, as such it should be a portion of your email security strategy, look into DKIM and DMARC too!
One thing that I initially did not understand… if you are supporting IPv6 and IPv4, you should merge your records onto a single DNS TXT entry:
example.com TXT v=spf1 a mx ip4:xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx ip6:xxxx:x:xxx:xxxx:xxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxx -all
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