IPv6

What is IPv6?
IPv6 stands for the Internet Protocol version 6. It is basically
a set of specifications from the internet engineering task force
(IETF). This is an upgraded version of the IP version 4 . The
basics of IPv6 and IPv4 are very much similar to each other.
Devices can use the IPv6 as a source as well as a destination to
send packets over a network.

Benefits of IPv6:
The following are the advantages of IPv6 over IPv4:

 Supports the source and destination addresses that are

128 bits (16 bytes) long
 Uses a link local scope all nodes multicast address
 Does not require manual address of the DHCP
 Uses host address (AAAA) resource records in DNS to
map host names to IPv6 addresses
 Supports a 1280 – byte packet size(without
fragmentation)
 Uses a flow labelled field to identify packet flow for
quality of Service (QoS) handling by router.
 Uses internet control message protocol version 6
(ICMPv6)
 Uses multicast neigbour Solitation messages to resolve IP
addresses to link layer addresses
 Uses Multicast Listener discovery(MLD) messages to
manage memberships in local subnets.

IPv6 Complications:
The following are some of the complications that the IPv6
is facing:
 It does not include a checksum to protect the IP header.
This means that whenever the packet header is
interrupted by transmission errors the packet data may
be transferred incorrectly.
 IPv4 and IPv6 machines or devices do not directly
communicate with each other.
 The process if making the switch of IPv6 and IPv4 is slow
and tedious
 Requires IPsec
 Since the header is of a fixed length that means that the
options cannot be tagged onto the IP header as in IPv4
 Allows the host to send packet fragments and not routers.
IPv6 Security:
This protocol version of the internet can be run on End to
end encryption (E2EE). Widespread adoption of this
protocol will make man-in-the-middle-attacks way more
difficult.
According to network security from SOHPOS , IPv6
support for the secure neighbor discovery (SEND)
protocol renders address resolution protocol (ARP)
poisoning and other attacks more difficult. IPv6 makes it
very difficult for the attackers to redirect traffic
between two legitimate hosts and manipulate a
conversation.
This added security depends entirely on proper design and
implementation. Thus the more complex the infrastructure
is the better the protocol works.
Operating a network in which two internet protocols --
IPv4 and IPv6 -- are deployed generally implies that
network configuration needs to be replicated for IPv6 --
that is, the network must be configured so that IPv6 can
operate like IPv4. This network configuration not only
includes aspects such as enabling IPv6 routing and
incorporating IPv6 information in the domain name system,
but also the enforcement of network security policies via
packet filtering.
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