What is IPv6?

The most common version of the Internet Protocol currently in use, IPv4, will soon be replaced by IPv6, a new protocol version.

The well-known IPv6 protocol is being used and deployed more often, especially in mobile phone markets. IP address determines who and where you are in the network of billions of digital devices connected to the Internet.

IPv6, or Internet Protocol Version 6, is a network-layer protocol that allows communication to take place over the network. It was designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in December 1998 to supersede IPv4 due to the exponentially growing global internet users.

The next-generation Internet Protocol (IP) address standard, IPv6, is meant to work with IPv4, which is still widely used today and will eventually be replaced. To communicate with other devices, a computer, smartphone, home automation component, Internet of Things sensor, or any other Internet-connected device needs a numerical IP address. Because so many connected devices are being used, the original IP address scheme, IPv4, runs out of addresses.

IPv4 vs IPv6

The common type of IP address (is known as IPv4, for “version 4”). Here’s an example of what an IP address might look like:

25.59.209.224

An IPv4 address consists of four numbers, each containing one to three digits, with a single dot (.) separating each number or set of digits. This group of separated numbers creates the addresses that let you and everyone around the globe send and retrieve data over our Internet connections. The IPv4 uses a 32-bit address scheme, allowing it to store 2^32 addresses, which is more than 4 billion addresses. It is the primary Internet Protocol and currently carries 94% of Internet traffic. Initially, it was assumed it would never run out of addresses but the present situation paves a new way to IPv6, let’s see why? An IPv6 address consists of eight groups of four hexadecimal digits. Here’s an example IPv6 address:

3001:0da8:75a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334

This new IP address version is being deployed to fulfill the need for more Internet addresses. With 128-bit address space, it allows 340 undecillion unique address spaces.

IPv6 support a theoretical maximum of 340, 282, 366, 920, 938, 463, 463, 374, 607, 431, 768, 211, 456. To keep it straightforward, we will never run out of IP addresses again.

The next iteration of the IP standard is known as Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Although IPv4 and IPv6 will coexist for a while, IPv6 is meant to work with IPv4 before eventually taking its place. We need to implement IPv6 to proceed and keep bringing new gadgets and services to the Internet. We can only move forward with an innovative and open Internet if we implement it, created with the needs of a global commercial Internet in mind.

Types of IPv6 Address

Now that we know about what is IPv6 address let’s take a look at its different types.

• Unicast addresses: The unicast address specifies only one interface. When a packet is sent to a unicast address destination, it moves from one host to the destination host.
• Multicast addresses Represent a group of IP devices and can only be used as the destination of a datagram.
• Anycast addresses: The multicast address and the anycast address are the same. The anycast address varies from other addresses because it can deliver the same IP address to several servers or devices. Keep in mind that the hosts do not receive the IP address. Differently, multiple interfaces or a collection of interfaces are assigned an anycast address.

Advantages of IPv6

• Faster Speeds: IPv6 supports multicast rather than broadcast in IPv4.This feature allows bandwidth-intensive packet flows (like multimedia streams) to be sent to multiple destinations simultaneously.
• More robust Security: IPSecurity, which provides confidentiality and data integrity, is embedded into IPv6.
• Routing efficiency
• Reliability
• Most importantly, it’s the final solution for growing nodes in the global network.
• The device allocates addresses on its own.
• Internet protocol security is used to support security.
• Enable simple aggregation of prefixes allocated to IP networks; this saves bandwidth by enabling the simultaneous transmission of large data packages.

Disadvantages of IPv6

• Conversion: Due to the widespread usage of IPv4, it will take a long time to shift to IPv6 completely.
• Communication: IPv4 and IPv6 machines cannot communicate directly with each other.
• Not going backward Compatibility: IPv6 cannot be executed on IPv4-capable computers because it is unavailable on IPv4 systems.
• Conversion Time: One significant drawback of IPv6 is its inability to uniquely identify each network device, making the conversion to IPV4 extremely time-consuming.
• Cross-protocol communication is forbidden since there is no way for IPv4 and IPv6 to communicate with each other.

The Differenece Between IPv6 and IPv4

Frequently Asked Questions on IPv6 – FAQs

What is IPv6?

IPv6 or Internet Protocol Version 6 is a network layer protocol that allows communication to take place over the network. IPv6 was designed by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) in December 1998 with the purpose of superseding the IPv4 due to the global exponentially growing internet users.

What are the benefits of using IPv6 rather than IPv4?

IPv6 supports multicast rather than broadcast in IPv4.This feature allows bandwidth-intensive packet flows (like multimedia streams) to be sent to multiple destinations all at once.

How is the IPv6 address represented?

IPv6 is represented by the below representation

1000:0ac3:22a2:0000:0000:4b3c:0504:1234

Who is more secure IPv4 or IPv6?

Since IPv6 was created with security in mind, it is more secure than IPv4 when implemented correctly.

What is IPv6 tunneling?

IPv4 and IPv6 packets can be encapsulated inside IPv6 packets using the IPv6 tunnelling technique. Between two IPv6 nodes, it is used to create a virtual point-to-point link. Since IPv6 tunnels are stateless, they are unaware of the remote tunnel endpoint’s existence or configuration.