Nt1310 Unit 6 Essay

There are two versions of internet protocols, Internet Protocol Version 4 and Internet Protocol Version 6. I will quickly brief you on differences in security, mobility, addressing space, speed, ease of administration. And why IPv6 is the successor of IPv4.

IPv4 is the original internet addressing system. It is a protocol which was used on packet-switched networks. Delivery model is how it operates at its best without a guaranteed avoidance of duplicate in delivery or assurance of proper sequencing. Some aspects include data integrity which is mostly addressed by TCP. IPV4 uses binary notation to sort at time IP address that consist of 32 bits. It is a practice to convert the 32 bits of an IPv4 address into four 8 bit known as octets. With each octet converted to a decimal number (base 10) from (0–255) and parted by a period developed a format called dotted decimal notation. IPv4 has a category of address class types: Class A, B, C, D and E. The class A addresses are used for big networks and always start with zero bits. Each Class A address network can hold up as many as 16,777,216 hosts.

In a Class A network, there are only 127 address and they were quickly used up. Class B network addresses are for medium sized networks and started with 10 bits. Each class B

network can hold up as many as 65,534 hosts. There are 16,384 class B network addresses which are also used up. The Class C addresses are for smaller networks and always started with bits consisting of 110. Each class C network can only hold up to 254 hosts. 2,097,152 makes up class C network addresses. Class D is used for multicasting to a number of hosts. Packets are distributed to a selected subset of hosts on a network. Only hosts registered for the multicast address accept the packets. Class E is reserved for research and experimental purposes only.
Today, every devices from computers, cell phones, tablest, printers, game consoles, and even soda machines requires an IP address. Each device connected to the Internet has to have a unique IP address embeded in order to talk with other devices on the Internet. But,with the increase number of devices connected to the Internet,the number of available IP addresses in IPv4 addresse pool are quickly being deminished . Considering that there are over 6 billion users in the world and many users have more than one device connected to the Internet, it is not surprising that 4.3 billion available IPv4 addresses is not enough.
IPv6 is the next generation protocol designed to replace IPv4. IPv6 is far more advanced, embeded with better features compared to IPv4. It has the ability to provide an infinite number of ip addresses. It is replacing IPv4 to house the growing number of networks worldwide today while helping to solve the IP address exhaustion problems that IPv4 had. IPv6 uses a 128-bit and allow for as many as 340 billion possible addresses, which is enough to cover every user on planet earth. The 128-bit system provides multiple levels of hierarchy and flexibility in its hierarchical addressing and routing map.
The IPv6 networks are denoted by CIDR notation. A network or subnet using the IPv6 protocol is denoted as a contiguous group of IPv6 addresses whose size must be a power of two. Here are some of the reasons why IPv6 will be a successor to IPv4: IPv6 provides a larger IP address space than IPv4. IPv6 uses 128 bits for IPv6 addresses which allows for 340 billion unique addresses. IPv6 provides better security than IPv4 for applications and networks. Network functioned for the last three decades with IPv4. However, IPv4 functions carried no security in mind and assume that the required security will be provided at the end nodes. The packets used with IPv4 were not always secure; but now with IPv6 there’s an option of doing such via Internet Protocol Security. IPv6 provides better Multicast and any cast abilities than IPv4. IPv6 also improves dramatically on the concept of any cast services, which is available, though in a very minimal form in IPv4. IPv6 offers better mobility features than IPv4. Mobile IPv4 requires a special router in the location of the mobile node to properly receive calls. Also, route optimization is available to mobile IPv4 only through an optional set of extensions.
IPv6 provides the ease of administration over IPv4.

With an IPv4 network, all the work consisting of network renumbering and assigning of new address schemes would had been done manually. Another useful feature of IPv6 is the multi-homing technique. It allows simultaneous connections which are established to two ISPs. Compared to IPv4, IPv6 has a much simpler packet header structure, which is designed to minimize the time and efforts that go in to header processing. IPv6 offers better end-to-end connectivity than its predecessor IPv4. The most exciting applications to emerge in todays world is peer-to-peer applications such as multi-player online games, video-conferencing (streaming), file sharing and

VoIP.
In conclusion, IPv6 is the future of the internet protocol. It has a vast improvement in its built in security with larger address space. This means no more NAT auto-configuration, no more private address collisions, better multicast routing simpler header format to make it more simplified, More efficient routing, quality built-in authentication and privacy support, with flexible options for the growth of the consumer devices. The impact of these enhanced features in IPv6 is to make possible applications simpler.