What is IPv6?
Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)
is a network layer protocol that enables data communications over a packet
switched network. Packet switching involves the sending and receiving of data
in packets between two nodes in a network. The working standard for the IPv6
protocol was published by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in 1998.
The IETF specification for IPv6 is RFC 2460. IPv6 was intended to replace the
widely used Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) that is considered the backbone
of the modern Internet. IPv6 is often referred to as the "next generation
Internet" because of it's expanded capabilities and it's growth through
recent large scale deployments. In 2004, Japan and Korea were acknowledged as
having the first public deployments of IPv6.
The explosive growth in mobile
devices including mobile phones, notebook computers, and wireless handheld
devices has created a need for additional blocks of IP addresses. IPv4
currently supports a maximum of approximately 4.3 billion unique IP addresses.
IPv6 supports a theoretical maximum of 2128 addresses
(340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 to be exact!). Recent
advancements in network technology including Network Address Translation (NAT)
have temporarily lessened the urgency for new IP addresses, however, recent
estimates indicate that IPv4 addresses could be exhausted as soon as 2012.
IPv6 and IPv4 share a similar
architecture. The majority of transport layer protocols that function with IPv4
will also function with the IPv6 protocol. Most application layer protocols are
expected to be interoperable with IPv6 as well, with the notable exception of
File Transfer Protocol (FTP). FTP uses embedded network layer addresses to
facilitate data transmission. An IPv6 address consists of eight groups of four
hexadecimal digits. If a group consists of four zeros, the notation can be
shortened using a colon to replace the zeros.
A main advantage of IPv6 is
increased address space. The 128-bit length of IPv6 addresses is a significant
gain over the 32-bit length of IPv4 addresses, allowing for an almost limitless
number of unique IP addresses. The size of the IPv6 address space makes it less
vulnerable to malicious activities such as IP scanning. IPv6 packets can
support a larger payload than IPv4 packets resulting in increased throughput
and transport efficiency.
A key enhancement over IPv4 is
native support for mobile devices. IPv6 supports the Mobile IPv6 (MIPv6)
protocol which enables mobile devices to switch between networks and receive a
roaming notification regardless of physical location. MIPv6 is a hallmark of
the protocol and was specified as a firm requirement during the design of IPv6.
The IETF has separate specifications for MIPv6 that detail data structure,
messaging, and security requirements.
Auto-configuration is another IPv6
enhancement that is considered a great benefit to network administrators. IPv6
devices can independently auto-configure themselves when connected with other IPv6
devices. Configuration tasks that can be carried out automatically include IP
address assignment and device numbering. An IPv6 router has the ability to
determine its own IPv6 address using data link layer addressing parameters. The
IETF has issued RFC 2462 to set guidelines for IPv6 auto-configuration.
The IPv6 protocol improves upon IPv4
with increased authentication and privacy measures. IPSec security is embedded
into the IPv6 specification to manage encryption and authentication between
hosts. This built in security framework enables secure data traffic between
hosts that is independent of any applications on either host. In this way, IPv6
provides an efficient end to end security framework for data transfer at the
host or the network level.
The deployment of IPv6 networks is growing
worldwide. Full replacement of IPv4 is expected to take some time, as it
remains the most widely used Internet Protocol. The United States, China, and
India are leading recent deployments of the IPv6 protocol and have large
investments in IPv6 network infrastructure. The United States government has
mandated that federal agencies must complete the transition to an IPv6
infrastructure no later than 2008. Software companies are also releasing
operating systems that support the IPv6 standard. In 1997, IBM became the first
commercial vendor to support IPv6 through its AIX 4.3 operating system. The
latest version of Microsoft's Windows operating system, Windows Vista, has full
IPv6 support enabled by default.Reference : http://6lab.cisco.com/
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