What is IPv4 and IPv6 Protocol ? | Difference | Pdf Download – An IP (Internet Protocol) address is a numerical label assigned to each device connected to a computer network that uses the IP protocol for communication. An IP address acts as an identifier for a specific device on a particular network. IP address is also called ip number or internet address.
The IP address specifies the technical format of the addressing and packet planning. Most networks combine IP with TCP (Transmission Control Protocol). It also allows to develop a virtual relationship between a destination and a source. Difference Between System Software And Application Software | Pdf
What is IPv4?
- IPv4 is an IP version that is widely used to identify devices on the network using an addressing system. This was the first version of ip deployed for production at ARPANET in 1983. It uses a 32-bit address scheme to store 2^32 addresses that are more than 4 billion addresses. It is considered the primary Internet protocol and carries 94% of the Internet traffic.
What is IPv6?
- IPv6 is the latest version of the Internet Protocol. This new IP address version is being deployed to meet the requirement of more Internet addresses. The aim was to resolve issues related to IPv4.
- With 128-bit address space, it allows for 340 reluctant unique address space. IPv6 is also known as IPng (Internet Protocol Next Generation).
- The Internet Engineers Taskforce started it in early 1994.
- The design and development of that suit is now called IPv6.
What is IPv4 and IPv6 Protocol ? | Difference | Pdf Download
- IPv4 is a 32-bit IP address while IPv6 is a 128-bit IP address.
- IPv4 is a numeric addressing method while IPv6 is an alphanumeric addressing method.
- IPv4 binary bits to a dot (. ) is separated by a colon (:) to the IPv6 binary bits while IPv6 is separated by is separated by.
- IPv4 provides 12 header fields while IPv6 provides 8 header fields.
- IPv4 supports broadcasting while IPv6 does not support broadcasting.
- IPv4 has checksum fields while IPv6 does not have checksum fields
- When we compare IPv4 and IPv6, IPv4 supports VLSM (Variable Length Subnet Mask) while IPv6 does not support VLSM.
- IPv4 uses ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) to map MAC addresses while IPv6 uses NDP (Neighbor Discovery Protocol) to map MAC addresses.
Major Features of IPv4:
Following are the features of IPv4:
- Connectionless Protocol
- Allow creating a simple virtual communication layer over diversified devices
- It requires less memory, and ease of remembering addresses
- Already supported protocol by millions of devices
- Offers video libraries and conferences
Major Features of IPv6:
Here are the features of IPv6:
- Hierarchical addressing and routing infrastructure
- Stateful and Stateless configuration
- Support for quality of service (QoS)
- An ideal protocol for neighboring node interaction
What is IPv4 and IPv6 Protocol ? | Difference | Pdf Download
| Areas | Ipv4 | Ipv6 |
|---|---|---|
| Address length | IPv4 is a 32-bit address. | IPv6 is a 128-bit address. |
| Fields | IPv4 is a numeric address that consists of 4 fields which are separated by dot (.). | IPv6 is an alphanumeric address that consists of 8 fields, which are separated by colon. |
| Classes | IPv4 has 5 different classes of IP address that includes Class A, Class B, Class C, Class D, and Class E. | IPv6 does not contain classes of IP addresses. |
| Number of IP address | IPv4 has a limited number of IP addresses. | IPv6 has a large number of IP addresses. |
| VLSM | It supports VLSM (Virtual Length Subnet Mask). Here, VLSM means that Ipv4 converts IP addresses into a subnet of different sizes. | It does not support VLSM. |
| Address configuration | It supports manual and DHCP configuration. | It supports manual, DHCP, auto-configuration, and renumbering. |
| Address space | It generates 4 billion unique addresses | It generates 340 undecillion unique addresses. |
| End-to-end connection integrity | In IPv4, end-to-end connection integrity is unachievable. | In the case of IPv6, end-to-end connection integrity is achievable. |
| Security features | In IPv4, security depends on the application. This IP address is not developed in keeping the security feature in mind. | In IPv6, IPSEC is developed for security purposes. |
| Address representation | In IPv4, the IP address is represented in decimal. | In IPv6, the representation of the IP address in hexadecimal. |
| Fragmentation | Fragmentation is done by the senders and the forwarding routers. | Fragmentation is done by the senders only. |
| Packet flow identification | It does not provide any mechanism for packet flow identification. | It uses flow label field in the header for the packet flow identification. |
| Checksum field | The checksum field is available in IPv4. | The checksum field is not available in IPv6. |
| Transmission scheme | IPv4 is broadcasting. | On the other hand, IPv6 is multicasting, which provides efficient network operations. |
| Encryption and Authentication | It does not provide encryption and authentication. | It provides encryption and authentication. |
| Number of octets | It consists of 4 octets. | It consists of 8 fields, and each field contains 2 octets. Therefore, the total number of octets in IPv6 is 16. |
