Networking Protocols: The Significant Difference Between IPv4 and IPv6

IP Proposal

Çıflıklı, & Özşahın wrote “Nowadays, the IPv6 protocol is in a transition phase in operational networks. The ratio of its traffic volume is increasing day by day.” (p.727) The IPv4 address pool officially ran out January 31, 2011. While no one can provide an exact date for when the world will have officially exhausted its IPv4 addresses, it is inevitable, and it is close. (ip4depletion) With the world now migrating from IPv4 to IPv6, now is the best time to begin migrating Sample Company to IPv6. Understanding the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 is important as well as the hardware/software requirements necessary for this migration. There are many advantages to migrating and many risks should Sample Company decide not to migrate. Let us begin.

IPv4

IPv4 uses a 32 bit address system that will give you a total of about 4.3 billion addresses. While this may seem like plenty of address, with how many devices are connecting to the network today, these addresses have already been depleted. Some of the features that hurt IPv4 include:

• Networks must be configured manually or with DHCP.

• Widespread use of NAT devices means that a single NAT address can mask thousands of non routable address, making end to end integrity unachievable.

• 4.2 billion address provide far less than even a single IP address per person on the planet.

• Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) manages in local subnet..

• Supports a 576-byte packet size that maybe fragmented. (Microsoft, 2009)

IPv6

The significant difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is that IPv6 has significantly more address space. IPv6 uses a 128 bit addressing system that provides about 340 undecillion (3.4×1038) addresses available. While the addresses look different,...

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... reduce downtime for Sample Company while the upgrade is underway.

Conclusion

Crystal Bedell says “Businesses that delay their IPv6 migration plan put themselves at risk. In the near-term, you run the risk of being unable to communicate with customers.” (2014) The bottom line is that IPv4 has run out of IP address, migrating to IPv6 is inevitable. Pretty soon websites that haven’t made the switch will be inaccessible and existing IPv4 networks will have such poor performance that they won’t last. Now is the time to act, migrating Sample Company’s infrastructure from IPv4 to IPv6 so we must build this effort into our budget and schedules as early as possible. Many vendors have already developed IPv6 ready solutions so involving them in the planning process will be very important. IPv6 may also strain older hardware so we must plan the move carefully.