June 10, 2010 What are IPv4 and IPv6? IP stands for Internet protocol and the v stands for the version, in this case it would be version four or version six. The IPv4 is the currently used protocol and IPv6 seems to be the next protocol to be most widely deployed. A golden rule says to “never touch a running system.”(Morgan, 2007, page 2) At least not if they are functioning like they are supposed to. Since IPv4 is reaching its limits, then IPv6 may be the next viable option. IP addresses are uniquely identified at the Network Layer of the OSI Model. IPv4 was the first protocol to be most utilized and is nearly twenty years old. It uses a thirty-two bit source and destination addressing and can create up to 4, 294, 967, 296 unique addresses. IPv4 has four types of classes A, B, C, and D. It also uses a subnet mask in order to make up more unique addresses for the large number of computer used today. The shortage of available IPv4 addresses is growing. Subnet Masks help to reduce the number of unique IP addresses given to companies and corporations. These organizations are using Network Address Translation (NAT) firewalls to map many private addresses to single public addresses due to these limitations. NAT does not support standards- based network-layer security as well as creating complicated barriers to VoIP. (Miyamoto, 2008) There are many features of IPv4 addressing. IPSec is optional and should be supported externally. Both routers and the sending host fragment packets. The header includes options and a checksum. Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) uses broadcast ARP request frames to resolve IP to MAC/Hardware or link-layer address. The Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) manages membership in local subnet groups. ICMP Router Discovery is used to determine the IPv4 address of the best default gateway and is optional. Broadcast addresses are used to send traffic to all nodes on a subnet. They can be configured manually or through DHCP. Also most support a 576-byte packet size, even possibly fragmented. IPv6, Internet Protocol version six, is the next advancement of IP’s. The Internet Engineering task force has named IPv6 as the next step from IPv4 stating that,
“It significantly increases the size of the address space used to identify communication endpoints in the internet thereby allowing it to continue its tremendous growth.”
IPv6 uses 128 bit source and destination addressing. This new protocol, to be released by 2025, will be able to crate three hundred and forty undecillion addresses. This would create more IP addresses than there are stars in the universe. (Miyamoto, 2008) IPv6 uses multicast or the ability to send one packet to multiple destinations. IPv6 also has a higher level of built-in security designed with mobile devices in mind. In IPv4 security was an issue. Mobile IPv6 unlike mobile IPv4 avoids triangular routing. IPv6 addressing has many new features. It has a new header format that minimizes header overhead. (see Figure 1 for example of an IPv6 header) By moving both the non-essential fields and extending headers with optional fields after the IPv6 header itself is how it is achieved. The IPv6 header can be made more efficient by processing intermediate routes. Unlike the IPv4 header which can only support forty bytes of options, the IPv6 header is constrained only by the size of the packet. (Miyamoto, 2008)
Figure 1: IPv6 Header
IPv6 header
The IPv4 came before the IPv6 and these datagrams are similar in many ways but also differ in more ways than one. IPv6 came out in the year 2004 and still uses many of the features that made IPv4 so successful. IPv6 is supposed to become the new standard over the older version of IPv6, but it is tough for v6 to take its spot when v6 cannot support everything v4 does, basically v6 cannot connect to a v4 system. Some differences are that it is stated that the IPv6 is more secure than the IPv4, the…
Judi King Linux Final Paper IPv4 vs IPv6 Many people do not realize it, although there are more that know that the world has an IP address that connects to the internet. When the internet was created they did not believe that IPv4 was ever going to run out of possible addresses that are able to be assigned to individuals and companies. Each IP address is assigned to either a wireless or wired connection. The history of IPv6 which is barely out there yet it does have a history already. There are…
occurs and when it does, it only sends the changed information to the routers affected, this greatly reduces bandwidth utilization. EIGRP does not require a hierarchical network design to operate efficiently. EIGRP is protocol independent, apart from ipv4 /6 it also supports IPX and AppleTalk, customers who are using these protocols can leverage the protocol independent EIGRP capabilities to achieve higher return on investments. EIGRP is less complex to implement and it also offers efficient route…
systems not only will support the next generation of mobile service, but also will support the fixed wireless networks. This article presents an overall vision of the 4G features, framework, and integration of mobile communication. 2 Figure 1. 3G Vs 4G 7. The features of 4G systems might be summarized with one word- Integration. The 4G systems are about seamlessly integrating terminals, networks, and applications to satisfy increasing user demands. The continuous expansion of mobile communication…