IPv4 & IPv6 are both IP addresses that are binary numbers. IPv4 is a 32-bit binary number, and IPv6 is a 128-bit binary number address. The older version’s addresses are separated by periods, while IPv6 addresses are separated by colons. We are slowly running out of IPv4 addresses.
Here’s an example of an IPv4 address:
192.157.10.128
And here’s an example of an IPv6 address:
2001:0bd8:72a1:0000:0000:2b3c:0013:7442
The number of IPv6 addresses is 1028 times larger than the number of the former. So there are more than enough IPv6 addresses to allow for Internet devices to expand for a very long time.
Some of the notable differences are:
|
Differences |
IPv4 |
IPv6 |
|---|---|---|
|
Quality of Service |
Not built-in |
Built-in |
|
Network Security |
Not built-in and dependent on the application |
Built-in |
|
Network Address Translation (NAT) |
NAT required |
NAT eliminated and allows end-to-end connectivity |
|
Multicasting |
Optional |
Mandatory – Part of the base specifications |
|
Mapping |
ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) |
NDP (Neighbour Discovery Protocol) |
|
Packet Fragmentation |
Sender and forwarding routers |
Only sender routers |
|
Transmission of Packets |
Broadcasting |
Multicasting and anycasting |
In addition to the differences listed above, another important difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is the way they handle addressing. IPv4 uses classful addressing, which means that the address is divided into a network portion and a host portion. This limits the number of networks and hosts that can be supported. On the other hand, IPv6 uses a hierarchical addressing structure that allows for greater flexibility and scalability.
Which IPv does IPknowledge support?
IPv4 will be supported for customers. IPv6 is not supported at the moment, support for IPv6 is in the works but there is no ETA. The reason is that IPv6 is not a hard requirement yet for most customers. We continuously monitor requests for IPv6 support and will provide an ETA at the time customer requirements dictate it.
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