Compare and contrast IPv4 and IPv6

Problem

Compare and contrast the IPv4 and IPv6 protocols.

Solution

IPv4 and IPv6 are the internet protocols applied at the network layer. IPv4 is the most widely used protocol right now and IPv6 is the next generation protocol for internet.

Table Cell	Table Cell
IPv4 is the fourth version of Internet protocol which uses 32 bit addressing	IPv6 is a next generation internet protocol which uses 128 bits addressing.
IPv4 allows 4,294,967,296 unique addresses	IPv6 can hold 340-undecillion (34, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000, 000) unique IP addresses.
IPv4 has different class types: A,B,C,D and E. Class A, Class B, and Class C are the three classes of addresses used on IP networks in common practice. Class D addresses are reserved for multicast. Class E addresses are simply reserved, meaning they should not be used on IP networks (used on a limited basis by some research organizations for experimental purposes). Unicast addresses: A Unicast address acts as an identifier for a single interface. An IPv6 packet sent to a Unicast address is delivered to the interface identified by that address. Multicast addresses: A Multicast address acts as an identifier for a group / set of interfaces that may belong to the different nodes. An IPv6 packet delivered to a multicast address is delivered to the multiple interfaces. Anycast addresses: Anycast addresses act as identifiers for a set of interfaces that may belong to the different nodes. An IPv6 packet destined for an Anycast address is delivered to one of the interfaces identified by the address.	IPv6 addresses are denoted by eight groups of hexadecimal quartets separated by colons in between them.
IPv4 address notation: 239.255.255.255, 255.255.255.0	An example of a valid IPv6 address: 2001:cdba:0000:0000:0000:0000:3257:9652

Because of the increase in the population, there is a need of Ipv6 protocol which can provide solution for:

1. Increased address space
2. More efficient routing
3. Reduced management requirement
4. Improved methods to change ISP
5. Better mobility support
6. Multi-homing
7. Security
8. Scoped address: link-local, site-local and global-address space

Reference

• http://tianrunhe.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/compare-and-contrast-ipv4-and-ipv6/