Why does ipv6 overcome the problems of ipv4

Debates concerning IPv4 versus IPv6 security often focus on different aspects of network deployment. It has been said that IPv6 supports improved security because the IP Security IPsec was originally developed for IPv6 and it implementation was intended to be a mandatory part of the protocol.

However, IPsec can also be used with IPv4, and is now simply recommended for use with IPv6 because it was considered impractical to require full IPsec implementations for all types of devices that may use IPv6. As a result, it has been expected that IPv6 would increase host exposure. However, host exposure can be reduce with the use of network firewalls e.

Many of the reported IPv6 security issues had to do with vulnerabilities in individual products rather than the IPv6 protocol. IPv4 is widely deployed and individual IPv4 products have gone through the recurring cycle of discovering and fixing security vulnerabilities and other bugs.

Many IPv6 products are comparatively newer and have fewer users, and have therefore not benefited from similar experience. As with any Internet product, security vulnerabilities will need to be discovered and repaired for IPv6 products. Operational practices built up over many years for IPv4 networks are being adapted for IPv6, and this will accelerate as more network operators deploy IPv6 and continue to exchange information about experience and best practices through established operator groups, the IETF, and other forums.

Maintaining network security is a challenging undertaking for both IPv4 and IPv6. Neither protocol provides a simple solution to the complexities associated with securing networks, and network operators should familiarise themselves with IPv6 security practices and stay up-to-date with developments as they deploy and operate IPv6.

IPv6 officially became a standard in RFC IPv6 also includes a large number of individual standards that have a more limited applicability and are only needed in specialised environments, and as with the continuing evolution of IPv4, there will always be updates and additions to IPv6-related specifications in response to deployment-specific experience.

Unfortunately, some products and services including some from major vendors do not fully support IPv6, and it is best to check with specific vendors on the readiness of their individual products and services, as well as their migration timeline. In addition, in-house software or custom code that interfaces with the network will likely need updating for IPv6.

If developers and vendors have no plans to support IPv6, then it is advisable to look for alternative products and services. Operational practices built up over many years for IPv4 networks will have to be adapted for IPv6. Whilst IPv6 has been successfully deployed in production networks for many years, many network operators still have little or no experience in running IPv6.

This situation is improving along with the increasing IPv6 deployment, and as experience and best practices are exchanged through the IETF, operator groups and other forums. The problem was that transitioning to IPv6 did not offer network operators, enterprises, or vendors any clear advantages in the short term, required some expenditure, and was another protocol to manage when few IPv6 services were available.

However, the IPv4 address space is now close to depletion, it is no longer possible to easily and cheaply obtain more IPv4 addresses, and the complexity of running NATs is starting to outweigh the costs of deploying IPv6. Many ISPs and content providers also now support IPv6, and so the lack of services running on IPv6 is no longer a disincentive to deployment.

IPv6 implementation is necessary and no longer something that organisations can put off until tomorrow. The L root server was added on 12 December , with G being the last on 20 October , meaning all 13 root servers are able to support IPv6 queries and responses. The costs of transitioning to IPv6 depend on the nature of the organisation and business. All major operating systems, as well as many software applications and hardware devices are IPv6 ready, allowing organisations to deploy it as part of routine upgrade cycles.

End-users should not notice when they are using IPv6 instead of IPv4, so there should be no additional training and documentation costs required for them. However, it may be necessary to provide extra training for help desk staff who are required to troubleshoot end user systems running IPv6. IPv6 is already supported by many major network operators and content providers, and as more and more deploy IPv6, native IPv6 access will not only become the norm, but more sites will only support IPv6.

Whilst translation mechanisms exist that allow access to IPv6-only sites for those that only have IPv4, these have an impact on performance and can be difficult to troubleshoot.

It is also worth considering what services and devices may need to be supported over the next few years. The rest are destined to run out within the next few years. Guided by this sense of Internet catastrophe, the most logical solution to this problem was to create a new protocol, a protocol that would go where no protocol has gone before, or at least provide more internet addresses to use.

As is traditional in our networking community, prescribed by the Internet Engineering Task Force or IETF the main promoter and developer of Internet standards , any new standard, method, behaviours, research and innovation needs to be published as a memorandum. This can include anything that involves or is applicable to the internet or internet related systems. The solution was for IPv6 to accommodate the increased demand by providing a much larger address space, along with improved traffic routing and better security.

Some of the salient features include:. Larger IP address space: IPv6 has bit address space or 4 times more address bits than IPv4's bit address space. This large address space is enough for many decades to come.

In real terms, every residential or commercial customer will be able to receive more address space from TWC than the entire IPv4 address space contains — several billion IP addresses! The main changes from IPv4 can be summarised as follows:.

So, in all, the proposal was adopted by IETF and implemented. The deployment of IPv6 is the only available solution to the IPv4 address shortage. Network address translation is one of the technologies that will be rendered unnecessary when IPv6 eventually becomes dominant, the report said.

Other practices that may no longer be necessary when IPv6 comes into its own include address rationing, dynamic IP addresses and other systems that are put into place to preserve IPv4 for as long as possible. While these technologies are good at what they are meant to do, they often add annoying steps to network management.

These are needed to make IPv4 work effectively, their removal should help IPv6 perform far better than its predecessor. At , all bits are set to 1. The binary form of the above IP address is Even with 4. Device types are far more than just desktops. Now there are smartphones, hotspots, IoT, smart speakers, cameras, etc. The list keeps proliferating as technology progresses, and in turn, so do the number of devices. IPv4 addresses are set to finally run out, making IPv6 deployment the only viable solution left for the long-term growth of the Internet.

Due to these limitations, IPv6 has been introduced as a standardized solution offering a bit address length that can define up to nodes. Recovered addresses will only be assigned via a waiting list. And that means only a couple hundred thousand addresses can be allotted per year, which is not nearly enough to cover the several million that global networks require today.

The consequences are that network tools will be forced to rely on expensive and complicated solutions to work around the problem of fewer available addresses. The countdown to zero addresses means enterprises world-wide have to take stock of IP resources, find interim solutions, and prepare for IPv6 deployment, to overcome the inevitable outage.

This technology allows for the prolongated use of IPv4 addresses. It does so by allowing a single IP address to be distributed across thousands of devices. When this happens, thousands of users are impacted and cannot be quickly put back online. One more commonly-used workaround is IPv4 address trading. This is a market for selling and buying IPv4 addresses that are no longer needed or used.

IPv4 scarcity remains a massive concern for network operators. Internet Protocol Version 6 or IPv6 is the newest version of Internet Protocol used for carrying data in packets from one source to a destination via various networks. IPv6 is considered as an enhanced version of the older IPv4 protocol, as it supports a significantly larger number of nodes than the latter. IPv6 allows up to possible combinations of nodes or addresses. It was first developed in the hexadecimal format, containing eight octets to provide more substantial scalability.