IPv4 vs IPv6

What is an IP?

The process or protocol used to transmit data from one computer to another over the internet is known as Internet Protocol (IP). Every computer connected to the internet, or host, and has at least one unique IP address which is different from every other computer.

The modern internet is made possible by IP which means a fundamental set of protocols. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers published a paper by Vinton Cerf and Robert Kahn titled "A Protocol for Packet Network Intercommunication" in May 1974, which provided the first description of IP.

What is an IP Address?

IP offers methods for connecting various systems and exchanging data. An IP address makes it possible to navigate each device in an IP network. An IP address is a unique address to the system that identifies the data. This process is same as like a street address throgh which we can identify the location of a house or place of a business.

DHCP is typically used to assign IP addresses (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol). The public IP address of a specific device can be assigned by an internet service provider using DHCP. The term "public IP address" refers to an IP address that can be accessed via the public internet.

What is  IPv4?

In 1983, IPv4 was the first implemented version of IP for use in the ARPANET. A network's hosts can be uniquely identified using IPv4 addresses.

There are various configuration options for IPv4 with multiple devices, including manual and automatic configurations, depending on the type of network.

IPv4 is the internet protocol of version 4 and IPv6 is also the newest internet protocol of version 6 which  povides more efficienc. And, the complexity of IPV6 is much better than IPv4.

There are five different address classes in IPv4: Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and Class E.

Addresses for IPv4 are 32-bit integers that are expressed in decimal form.

Example: An IPv4 address could be 192.0.2.126.

There are 3 different parts of the IPV4 Protocol :

1. Network Parts

2. Host Parts

3. Subnet Number

Characteristics of IPv4

• An IPv4 address could be 32 bits long.
• The bits in an IPv4 address are separated by dots and could be a number.
• There are twelve header fields, and each one is twenty characters long.
• It has addresses in the form of Unicast, Broadcast, and Multicast formats.
• It supports VLSM which means Virtual Length Subnet Mask.
• Using the Post Address Resolution Protocol, the MAC address is translated into an IPv4 address.
• The routed daemon may support the RIP routing protocol.
• Networks should be created manually or using DHCP.

Advantages of IPv4

• IPv4 security allows encryption to maintain security and privacy.
• There are currently quite 85000 useful routers in the IPV4 network, which is significant.
• Without NAT, connecting multiple devices across a large network becomes simple.
• This is a model of communication that offers both cost-effective and high-quality knowledge transfer.
• Redefining IPV4 addresses allows for flawless encoding.
• Due to collective addressing's increased effectiveness, routing is more scalable and cost-effective in IPv4.
• Network data communication in multicast organizations becomes more specialized.

Disadvantages of IPv4

• It limits the growth of the internet for current users and makes it difficult for new users to use the internet.
• IPv4 Internet Routing is ineffective.
• IPv4 is labor-intensive, complex, slow, and prone to errors, and it has expensive system management.
• Less security features.

What is IPv6?

A network layer protocol called Protocol Version 6 enables communication over networks. The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) created IPv6 in December 1998 to replace IPv4 due to the increasing number of users on Internet worldwide.

In addition to increasing address space, the IETF also improved IPv6 in comparison to IPv4 in its work. The performance, security, and efficiency of the IPv6 protocol are enhanced. It allows internet service providers to reduce the size of their routing tables by increasing the hierarchical structure of their organization.

The format of an IPv6 address is 2620:cc:8000:1c82:544c:cc2e:f2fa:5a9b. There are eight numbers instead of four, and colons are used to separate them. The letters are used in IPv6 addresses because they are written in hexadecimal (Base 16) notation, which needs 16 different symbols to uniquely represent the Base 10 numbers.

There are 3 types of IPv6 Address

1. Unicast Addresses
2. Multicast Addresses
3. Anycast Addresses

Advantages of IPv6

• It is more reliable than Ipv4.
• Multicast is supported by IPv6 as opposed to broadcast by IPv4. This function enables the simultaneous transmission of packet flows with high bandwidth requirements, such as multimedia streams.
• IPv6 includes IPSecurity, which offers data integrity and confidentiality.
• Routing is so effective.
• Most importantly, IPv6 is the final solution for increasing the number of nodes in the Global-network.

Disadvantages of IPv6

• It will take a long time to switch over to IPv6 because IPv4 is highly used.
• Machines using IPv4 and IPv6 cannot speak to one another directly. To do that, they require independent third-party technology.

IPv4	IPv6
The address length for IPv4 is 32 bits.	The address length for IPv6 is 128 bits.
Connection integrity in Ipv4 for end-to-end is not possible.	Connection integrity in IPv6 for end-to-end is possible.
It supports both DHCP and manual address configuration.	It supports automatic and renumbering address configuration.
The security feature is application dependent in this version of the protocol	The IPv6 protocol includes an internal security feature called IPSEC.
Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and Class E are the five different IP address classes that are available in IPv4.	There are no IP address classes in IPv6.
It is compatible with VLSM. Here, VLSM refers to the process by which IPv4 transforms IP addresses into subnets of various sizes.	VLSM cannot be supported by it.
It doesn't offer encryption or authentication.	It offers both encryption and authentication.
The checksum field in IPv4 is available.	There is no checksum field in IPv6.
Fragmentation is carried out by sender and forwarding routers in IPv4.	Only the sender performs fragmentation in IPv6.
Dot-decimal notation is typically used to represent IPv4 addresses. It consists of four decimal numbers separated by dots, each ranging from 0 to 255.	An IPv6 address consists of eight groups which has four hexadecimal digits, each representing 16 bits.
Example of IPv4:  65.22.65.10	Example of IPv6: 1999:0111:3267:DETY:0798:0000:0000:VCDD

Conclusion

In 1983, IPv4 was the first version of IP which was used in the ARPANET. IPv4 is the internet protocol of version 4 and IPv6 is also the newest internet protocol of version 6 which in terms of efficiency and complexity is much better than IPv4.

Addresses for IPv4 are 32-bit integers that are expressed in decimal form.