IPv6 vs. IPv4
I just recently participated in a group presentation about IPv6 for my Telecom class, and here are some of the results of our research. If you’re a “technical” person, chances are you’ll like to know this.
What is IPv6?
IPv6 is an Internet protocol, said to be the successor of IPv4, the current standard protocol. These are both Internet Protocols, most commonly referred to as IP. An IP address basically gives a computer an unique identity, hence allowing it to connect to the internet or any other network.
The Problem with IPv4, and hence need to upgrade to IPv6
We’re running out of IPs. IPv4 was created about 20 years ago and wasn’t initially built for use in so many computers. Keep in mind that every time a computer needs an internet connection, it needs an IP address. The current IPv4 protocol only allows 4,294,967,296 IPs, so you can easily tell we’re going to have problems having unique IPs to give out, specially as China, India and other nations progress at a very fast pace.
Companies aren’t moving toward IPv6 as fast as they should. So the government is forcing them to, with deadlines and everything. Some companies are just not motivated to move to IPv6 because they have plenty of IPv4 addresses, so the government is making sure companies are IPv6 enabled soon to avoid a last minute mass move to IPv6.
IPv4 vs. IPv6
IPv4 uses a 32 bit address system ( 232 ), 4 octets separated by a period.
Example of a normal IPv4 IP: 132.122.65.6
The new IPv6 protocol uses 128 bit address, so there’s virtually no limit in the number of IP that could be produces. Besides, it uses hexadecimal values, which are separated by a colon, instead of the traditional period.
Example of a IPv6 IP: FEDC:BA89:7596:3210:FEDD:3324:2122
Advantages of IPv6
The advantages of IPv6 are not only limited to more addressing possibilities. Here a list of major IPv6 advantages.
- Unlimited Addressing.
- Routing and Network Auto-configuration.
- Enhanced Broadcasting capabilities: Unicasting, Multicasting, Anycasting.
- QoS: Quality of Service – The ICMPv6 protocol is used to report errors in packets and performs diagnostics. One great feature is that this protocol returns a specific error message (Errors or Informational messages) so we have a better idea where the error occurred, etc.
- Security: IPsec allows secure packet flows, mutual authentication and cryptographic parameters. Furthermore, an application doesn’t need to be built to be used with IPsec, whereas Transport Layer (refer to the OSI Model) security protocols SSL or SSH, for example, need to be able to work with the actual applications.
Note About Implementation
- Install and configure IPv6 protocol on all nodes in network.
- Test and verify that all nodes and routers successfully operate together.
- At a large organization this is very challenging.
Conclusion
The change over could be challenging in big networks, but most modern switches and networking equipment is already IPv6 enabled.
This is one of the technical things that might be of little interest until the day comes that we run out of IPs, so if you happen to work for a company that hasn’t already addressed an upgrade to IPv6, do it now, and maybe you’ll get a raise or something! 
Sources
IPv6 guru Jim Bound predicts last-minute switch
By Carolyn Duffy Marsan, Network World, 12/17/07
IPv6 – http://www.ipv6.org/
IPv4 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4
