IPV4/IPV6

 

An Internet Protocol address is also known as IP address. It is a numerical label which assigned to each device connected to a computer network which uses the IP for communication.

IP address act as an identifier for a specific machine on a particular network. The IP address is also called IP number and internet address. IP address specifies the technical format of the addressing and packets scheme. Most networks combine IP with a TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). It also allows developing a virtual connection between a destination and a source. Without IP addresses, computers would not be able to communicate and send data to each other. It's essential to the infrastructure of the web.

Internet Protocol Versions

There are currently two version of Internet Protocol (IP): IPv4 and a new version called IPv6. IPv6 is an evolutionary upgrade to the Internet Protocol. IPv6 will coexist with the older IPv4 for some time.

 

 

IPV4

IPv4 was the first version of IP. It was deployed for production in the ARPANET in 1983. Today it is most widely used IP version. It is used to identify devices on a network using an addressing system. Whenever a device access the Internet (whether it's a PC, Mac, smartphone or other device), it is assigned a unique, numerical IP address such as 99.48.227.227. To send data from one computer to another through the web, a data packet must be transferred across the network containing the IP addresses of both devices.

The IPv4 uses a 32-bit address scheme allowing to store 2^32 addresses which is more than 4 billion addresses. Till date, it is considered the primary Internet Protocol and carries 94% of Internet traffic. With the growth of the Internet it is expected that the number of unused IPv4 addresses will eventually run out because every device -- including computers, smartphones and game consoles -- that connects to the Internet requires an address.

IPV6

IPv6 is the sixth revision to the Internet Protocol and the successor to IPv4. It functions similarly to IPv4 in that it provides the unique, numerical IP addresses necessary for Internet-enabled devices to communicate. However, it does sport one major difference: it utilizes 128-bit addresses. I'll explain why this is important in a moment.

IPv6 utilizes 128-bit Internet addresses. Therefore, it can support 2^128 Internet addresses — 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them to be exact. That's a lot of addresses, so many that it requires a hexadecimal system to display the addresses. In other words, there are more than enough IPv6 addresses to keep the Internet operational for a very, very long time.

The depletion of IPv4 addresses was predicted years ago, so the switch has been in progress for the last decade. However, progress has been slow — only a small fraction of the web has switched over to the new protocol. In addition, IPv4 and IPv6 essentially run as parallel networks — exchanging data between these protocols requires special gateways.

 

To make the switch, software and routers will have to be changed to support the more advanced network. This will take time and money. The first real test of the IPv6 network will come on June 8, 2011, World IPv6 Day. Google, Facebook and other prominent web companies will test drive the IPv6 network to see what it can handle and what still needs to be done to get the world switched over to the new network.

Initially, it won't have a major impact on your life. Most operating systems actually support IPv6, including Mac OS X 10.2 and Windows XP SP 1. However, many routers and servers don't support it, making a connection between a device with an IPv6 address to a router or server that only supports IPv4 impossible. IPv6 is also still in its infancy; it has a lot of bugs and security issues that still need to be fixed, which could result in one giant mess.Nobody's sure how much the transition will cost or how long it will take, but it has to be done in order for the web to function as it does today.

 

Difference Between IPV4 and IPV6

Ipv4                                                                                 Ipv6

 

 

IPv4 has 32-bit address length	IPv6 has 128-bit address length
It Supports Manual and DHCP address configuration	It supports Auto and renumbering address configuration
In IPv4 end to end connection integrity is Unachievable	In IPv6 end to end connection integrity is Achievable
It can generate 4.29×109 address space	Address space of IPv6 is quite large it can produce 3.4×1038 address space
Security feature is dependent on application	IPSEC is inbuilt security feature in the IPv6 protocol
Address representation of IPv4 in decimal	Address Representation of IPv6 is in hexadecimal
Fragmentation performed by Sender and forwarding routers	In IPv6 fragmentation performed only by sender
In IPv4 Packet flow identification is not available	In IPv6 packetflow identification are Available and uses flow label field in the header
In IPv4 checksumfield is available	In IPv6 checksumfield is not available
It has broadcast Message Transmission Scheme	In IPv6 multicast and any cast message transmission scheme is available
In IPv4 Encryption and Authentication facility not provided	In IPv6 Encryption and Authentication are provided