COMPARISON BETWEEN IPV4 AND IPV6

ABSTRACT
Internet Protocol is part of the Internet suite of communications protocols
that provides globally unique addresses in dotted quad notation, transmits
data in packets and performs routing between IP based networks.
IP (short for Internet Protocol) specifies the technical format of packets and
the addressing scheme for computers to communicate over a network. Most
networks combine IP with a higher-level protocol called Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP), which establishes a virtual connection between a destination
and a source.
IP by itself can be compared to something like the postal system. It allows
you to address a package and drop it in the system, but there's no direct link
between you and the recipient. TCP/IP, on the other hand, establishes a
connection between two hosts so that they can send messages back and
forth for a period of time.
There are currently two version of Internet Protocol (IP): IPv4 and a new
version called IPv6. IPv6 is an evolutionary upgrade to the Internet Protocol.
IPv6 will coexist with the older IPv4 for some time.

CHAPTER ONE
1.0

INTRODUCTION

1.1

Background of the Study

Day by day infrastructure of the Internet is expanding and we can even enjoy
the service of the Internet in villages and remote areas. At first the Internet
protocol addressing (a specific IP addressing for each online entity) was
designed on 32 bit and this scheme IP version called IPv4. IPv4 addressing is
like 203.128.76.189. decimal is used to make the IPv4 addresses more
palatable for humans and a 32-bit address becomes 4 decimal numbers
separated by the period (.) character.
IPv4 allows for 4,294,967,296 addresses which are about 4 billion and IP
allocation limits the public IP addresses to a few hundred million. Due to this
limitation companies use NAT (Network Address Translator) to map single
public IP and multiple private IP addresses.
In IPv4 network IDs allocation is very critical and currently more than 87000
routes in the routing tables of the Internet backbone routers today. The
routing infrastructure is based on the flat and hierarchical routing.
Deployment of IPv6 is a big challenge for the Internet management groups,
stake holders and service providers. It is difficult but not impossible. The
biggest upgrade jump from IPv4 32 bit to IPv6 128 bit.
New header is designed to minimize header overhead by moving both
nonessential and optional fields to extension headers that are placed after
the IPv6 header.
In IPv6 source and destination addresses are based on 128 bit. 128 bit
addressing can produce over 3.4 x 1038 possible combinations. 128 bit
addressing allows us multiple levels of sub-netting and address allocation. So
we can say that we have plenty of address for use in future.
IPv6 was designed to create an efficient, hierarchical, and easy routesummarized infrastructure that is based on the common occurrence of
multiple levels of Internet Service Providers. It reduces the size of routing
table of backbone routers. The Authentication header (AH) provides data

integrity, data authentication, and replays protection for the entire IPv6
packet.
Day by day streaming and multimedia devices become more and more
popular. Therefore the usage of these services are increasing day by day IPv6
has a flow level field in its header which make better and special handling for
packets from source to destination. Data traffic is identified in the IPv6
header, support for QoS can be achieved even when the packet payload is
encrypted with IPSec and ESP.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are a crucial resource for the functioning of
the Internet. Much like a telephone number, an IP address is assigned to
every network interface (router, computer, mobile telephone, server, etc.)
that connects to the Internet. These addresses are currently assigned using
the fourth version of the Internet Protocol, or IPv4. There are a limited
number of addresses that can be assigned using IPv4 and the supply of
unallocated addresses is effectively exhausted. Internet Protocol version 4
(IPv4) is the protocol version that made the Internet successful. IPv4 together
with Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6), is the foundation for internetworking
methods of the Internet. There have been several challenges that has been
encountered over the years, most of which are detailed below:
Resources available over IPv6 are not reachable from an IPv4 node and
vice versa
Problem of transition from IPv4 to IPv6
Several protocols used during the years have died which gives rise to
new ones
The supply of unallocated IPv4 addresses
1.3

Objectives of the Study