IPv4 vs IPv6: The Difference

Contents

1. What is Internet Protocol (IP)?
2. IPv4: A Brief Introduction
3. Are all the IPv4 addresses finished?
4. Disadvantages of IPv4
5. IPv6: Next-Gen IP address
6. Advantages of IPv6 over IPv4
7. IPv6 V/S IPv4
8. More benefits of IPv6
9. Why do we not completely transition to IPv6?

This article is here to help you out in understanding the difference between IPv4 V/S IPv6.Before moving on to the difference between IPv4 V/S IPv6, let see what is internet protocol.

What is Internet Protocol (IP)?

Internet Protocol is a unique identifier that identifies each and every networking device on the Internet. An IP address is the same as our home address, which identifies our home location uniquely in the world.

Imagine, I want to send a letter from my house (House 1) to my friend’s house (House 2).

So, you need to have the address of my friend’s house so as to associate it with the letter in order to send the letter.

Similarly, if you want to connect to the Google’s server in order to search something you need to have the google’s DNS address.

Whenever you type www.google.com, internally the query url gets converted into the IP address (8.8.8.8) by DNS and we can access Google website.

An IP address is a series of numbers isolated by periods. IP addresses are communicated as a bunch of four numbers — a model location may be 192.158.1.38. Each number in the set can go from 0 to 255. In this way, the full IP tending to go goes from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255. 

IP addresses are not arbitrary. They are numerically delivered and designated by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), a division of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN). ICANN is a non-benefit association that was set up in the US in 1998 to help keep up the security of the web and permit it to be usable by all. Each time anybody enrolls an area on the web, they go through a space name recorder, who pays a little charge to ICANN to enlist the space.

In order to identify your IP address, simply go to Terminal and type 

> ipconfig

IPv4: A Brief Introduction

Internet Protocol variant 4, by and large alluded to as IPv4, was created in the mid 1980s. An IPv4 address involves four numbers, each going from 0 to 255, which are isolated by periods. For instance, Google’s IP address is 8.8.8.8 . There is something else entirely to IP locations, and it assists with understanding the fundamentals of TCP/IP too, yet these are the rudiments. 

Each site has an IP address; we simply don’t utilize them any longer, ordinarily. In the beginning of the web, it was important to realize a site’s IP address to explore to it. At that point, the Domain Name Administration (DNS) went along, which makes an interpretation of numbers into names. So when you type in “www.google.com” the DNS makes an interpretation of that back to 8.8.8.8 . This empowers us to explore the web considerably more advantageously, as it’s a lot simpler to review a site’s name than its IP address.

Example of IPv4

Key Takeaways

• IPv4 starts from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255
• It covers  2³² i.e around 4 billion addresses.
• IPv4 is a 32-bit address.
• IPv4 can be represented in Decimal, Octal or Hexadecimal notation.
• IPv4 does not have an error checking or acknowledgement mechanism.
• There are two types of IPv4 address: Public and Private
• Private addresses are locally unique.
• Public addresses are globally unique.

Are all the IPv4 addresses finished?

IPv4 has a hypothetical restriction of 4.3 billion locations, and in 1980, that was all that anyone could need. However, as the web developed and went worldwide, we immediately ran out of addresses, particularly in the present time of cell phones and IoT gadgets. 

The web has been running out of IPv4 addresses since the 1990s. While sharp designers have discovered ways around the issue, it wasn’t well before a more perpetual fix turned into the objective.

With the help of Network Address Translation (NAT), we can preserve public addresses of IPv4 addresses as well as increase security. But we require, to set up NAT Routers to accomplish this.

Created to tackle these limit issues for great, IPv6 was required when IPv4 could at this point don’t uphold the heap. 

As of now, IPv4 coincides on the web with its fresher variant, however in the long run, all that will utilize IPv6. Supplanting old IPv4 gear would be restrictively costly and problematic, thus IPv6 is in effect gradually carried out as more seasoned IPv4 equipment is retired.

Disadvantages of IPv4

1. Designs 

IPv4 needs arrangement either physically or naturally. Designing IPv4 physically must be done through Dynamic Host Arrangement Convention (DHCP). Setups of DHCP are perplexing since independent administration should be accomplished for its framework. 

2. Security 

Since IPv4 was distributed a long time back, it was not intended to get from dangers forced today. Subsequently, Web Convention Security (IPSec) empowers network security to IPv4 by determining the utilization of the web. However, the issue lies when IPSec isn’t implicit and its execution is discretionary. 

3. Foundation 

In IPv4 singular location prefixes are relegated with the goal that every one of them can turn out to be a new switch. Also the web today contains level and progressive switches. Anyway there are in excess of 85000 courses in the web spine switches. 

4. Versatility 

Despite the fact that IPv4 contains a determination for its portability, it is viewed as wasteful. The justification for this is the way that it has its own foundation. Subsequently, its versatility hubs are wasteful as well. 

5. Access Space 

Exhaustion of Public location is another issue confronted while utilizing IPv4. This is essentially because of the underlying location class assignment rehearses. For checking this location space shortage, the cycle of Network Address Interpretation (NAT) is presented. In NAT one single public IPv4 address is divided between different secretly tended to PCs. 

6. Geological Limitations 

The country that is known for making the web is the US. Consequently, this nation is associated with the cycle of IP address circulation as well. Indeed a large portion of the location is saved in the US.

IPv6: Next Gen IP Address

Internet Convention version 6, or IPv6, was first presented in the last part of the 1990s as a substitution for IPv4. And still, after all that the manufacturers of the web understood IPv4’s impediments and the possible lack. 

IPv6 utilizes 128-digit addresses, taking into account a hypothetical 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456, or 340 undecillion addresses. IPv6 addresses are addressed as eight gatherings of four hexadecimal digits, with the gatherings being isolated by colons. One model may be “2002:0de6:0001:0042:0100:8c2e:0370:7234,” yet strategies to curtail this full documentation exist. 

As well as expanding the stock of IP addresses, IPv6 additionally tended to IPv4’s numerous inadequacies — boss among them being security, which we’ll dig into all the more later.

Example of IPv6:

Key Takeaways

• IPv6 is a 128 bit address.
• IPv6 covers 2128 i.e around 340 undecillion addresses.
• IPv6 provides more security with encryption and decryption processes.
• IPv6 addresses are represented in Hexadecimal addresses.
• IPv6 automatically configures itself when its state is up in a network, which is called Auto-configuration.
• Using IPv6 the data can be sent in the range 0-4GB with the help of jumbo packets.

Advantages of IPv4 over IPv6

More Effective Routing – IPv6 diminishes the size of steering tables and makes steering more proficient and progressive. In IPv6 organizations, fracture is taken care of by the source gadget, as opposed to a switch, utilizing a convention for revelation of the way’s greatest transmission unit. 

More proficient Packet preparing – Contrasted and the IPv4, IPv6 contains no IP-level checksum, so the checksum shouldn’t be recalculated at each switch bounce. 

Coordinated Information Streams – IPv6 upholds multicast as opposed to communication. Multicast permits data transfer capacity escalated bundle streams to be shipped off different objections all the while, saving organization transmission capacity. 

Worked on network arrangement – IPv6 gadgets can freely auto-design themselves when associated with other IPv6 gadgets. Setup undertakings that can be done consequently incorporate IP address task and gadget numbering. 

Security – IPSec security, which gives secrecy, validation, and information honesty, is engraved into IPv6.

IPv4 V/S IPv6

1. Address Space

IPv4 contains 2³² address I.e around 4 billion addresses. But the addresses can be reused and masked.

Ipv6 contains 2¹²⁸ address I.e around 340 undecillion addresses, which can satisfy the need for modern world especially IoT devices, in which every device requires a unique IP address.

2. Bits Length

IPv4 is 32 bits long.

Ipv6 is 128 bits long.

3. Representation

IPv4 is represented in Decimal Notation. 

Example: 192.168.0.1.

IPv6 is represented in Hexadecimal Notation.

Example: 2002:0de6:0001:0042:0100:8c2e:0370:7234.

4. Configuration

IPv6 has another element called auto-configuration, which permits a gadget to create an IPv6 address when it controls up and puts itself on the organization. The gadget starts by searching for an IPv6 switch. In the event that one is available, the gadget can create a residential area and a worldwide routable location, permitting admittance to the more extensive web. In IPv4-based organizations, the way toward adding gadgets frequently must be done manually.

5. Packet flow

Despite having more IP addresses, the introduction of IPv6 brought greater utility. For example, IPv6 supports multicasting, which allows data transmission power concentrated bundle streams (such as video and audio streams) to be sent off multiple devices at the same time, reducing network transfer speed.

IPv4 supports broadcast, so it is slow in speed as compared to IPv6.

6. Speed

IPv6 could theoretically be quicker so no cycles are lost on NAT translations. However, IPv6 uses larger packets, which can make it slower in certain situations. What really differentiates IPv4 networks from IPv6 networks at this stage is that IPv4 networks are more mature and therefore highly optimised. IPv6 networks can become faster with time and tuning.

7. Security

Since IPv6 is designed to provide end-to-end encryption, widespread adoption could make man-in-the-middle attacks far more difficult.

IPv6 was created with a higher level of protection in mind. IP Protection (IPSec) is a collection of security, authentication, and data integrity protocols developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), and it’s completely incorporated into IPv6. IPSec, on the other hand, can be completely merged into IPv4. It’s up to ISPs to put it in place, and not all of them do.

8. Additional Header

With IPv6, we can send multiple headers, along with the main header on the basis of various Options we require.

Example: If I want Hop-to-Hop delivery, I will use Hop-to-Hop Option.

If I want Fragmentation, I will use the Fragmentation Option.

I can use both as well as other options also.

Using Ipv4, we cannot send multiple headers along with the main header. There is a field called Options/Padding in the header of IPv4, there we can add only one option.

9. Header Size

The size of IPv4 header is 24 Bytes.

The size of IPv4 header is 40 Bytes.

10. Address Features.

In IPv4 due to limited address space, Network Address Translation (NAT) is used which preserves the public addresses of IPv4.

In IPv6 due to the availability of vast addressing space,direct addressing is done.

Brief Difference between IPv4 vs IPv6

Parameter	IPv4	IPv6
Length	32-bit long	128-bit long
Address space	Contains 232 addresses I.e around 4 billion addresses	Contains 2128 addresses I.e around 340 undecillion addresses.
Representation	It is represented in Decimal notation. Ex: 192.168.0.1	It is represented in Hexadecimal notation. Ex: 2002:0de6:0001:0042:0100:8c2e:0370:7234.
Packet Flow	Send multiple data simultaneously using Multicasting.	Cannot send multiple data simultaneously. Uses Broadcasting.
Speed	Comparatively Slow	Faster than Ipv4
Security	Less Secure	More Secure
Additional Header	Additional Headers cannot be used	Additional Headers can be used.
Header Size	24 Bytes	40 Bytes
Address Features	NAT is used.	Direct Addressing is used due to availability of vast addresses.

Benefits of IPv6

IPv6 allows for the binding of a public signature key, which is one half of an asymmetric encryption scheme, to an IPv6 address. The user may use the Cryptographically Generated Address to show “evidence of ownership” for a specific IPv6 address and verify their identity. With the existing 32-bit address space, retrofitting this feature to IPv4 is unlikely.

The new protocol also allows end-to-end communication at the IP layer by removing the need for Network Address Translation (NAT), which was previously used to preserve IPv4 addresses. This change allows for the introduction of innovative and useful services. Peer-to-peer networks are becoming easier to set up and manage, and services like VoIP and QoS are becoming more reliable.

Furthermore, IPv6 provides the ability to belong to multiple networks at the same time, each with its own unique address, as well as the ability to merge multiple enterprise networks without readdressing.

Also Read: Networking Interview Question

Why do we completely not transition to IPv6?

We can, in due course. It takes a long time for widely accepted technology to die out, and the transition to a replacement is never as fast as their proponents would want. The transition to IPv6 would be final, but it will take decades to complete. According to the Internet Society, there are 24 countries in the world where IPv6 traffic accounts for more than 15% of all IP traffic and 49 countries where IPv6 traffic accounts for more than 5% of all IP traffic.

So the transition from IPv4 to Ipv6 is progressing in a very slow manner.

I hope this article helped you out to understand the difference between IPv4 V/S IPv6.If you wish to learn about internet protocols, internet security check out the Cyber Security Program and upskill today!