INTRODUCTION The Internet Protocol (IP) is the method or

protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the Internet.

HISTORY OF THE INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP)

In 1978, the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) mandated the use of IPv4 for all “host-to-host” data exchange enabling IPv4 to become the mechanism for the military to create integrated versus stove piped communications.

Why New IP Version? So far, IPv4 has proven itself as a robust routable

addressing protocol and has served us for decades on its best-effort-delivery mechanism.

It was designed in the early 80s and did not get any major change afterward.

At the time of its birth, Internet was limited only to a few universities for their research and to the Department of Defense.

Major points that played a key role in the birth of IPv6:

Internet has grown exponentially and the address space allowed by IPv4 is saturating. There is a requirement to have a protocol that can satisfy the needs of future Internet addresses that is expected to grow in an unexpected manner.

IPv4 on its own does not provide any security features. Data has to be encrypted with some other security application before being sent on the Internet

About the IP v6: INTERNET PROTOCOL VERSION 6 (IPV6) IS THE

LATEST REVISION OF THE INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP) AND THE FIRST VERSION OF THE PROTOCOL TO BE WIDELY DEPLOYED.

IPV6 WAS DEVELOPED BY THE INTERNET ENGINEERING TASK FORCE (IETF) TO DEAL WITH THE LONG -ANTICIPATED PROBLEM OF IPV4 ADDRESS EXHAUSTION.

World IPv6 Launch day on June 6, 2012

Internet Protocol version 6 is a new addressing protocol designed to incorporate all the possible requirements of future Internet known to us as Internet version-2.

This protocol as its predecessor IPv4, works on the Network Layer (Layer-3). Along with its offering of an enormous amount of logical address space, this protocol has ample features to address the shortcoming of IPv4.

IP version 6 / IPv6 (also known as IPng - ng for new/next generation), provides 128-bit addressing (that's billions upon billions of addresses).

How IPv6 works : IPv6 is technology with a main focus on changing the structure of

current IP addresses, which will allow for virtually unlimited IP addresses.

The current version, IPv4 is a growing concern with the limited IP addresses, making it a fear that they will run out in the future.

IPv6 will also have a goal to make the Internet a more secure place for browsers, and with the rapid number of identity theft victims, this is a key feature.

Why Not IPv5? Version 0 to 3 were used while the protocol was itself

under development and experimental process. So, we can assume lots of background activities remain active before putting a protocol into production.

Similarly, Protocol version 5 was used while experimenting with the stream protocol for Internet. It is known to us as “Internet Stream Protocol” which used Internet Protocol number 5 to encapsulate its datagram. It was never brought into public use, but it was already used.

Do We Really Need a Larger Address Space?

Internet Users or PC ~530 million users in Q2 CY2002, ~945 million by 2004

(Source: Computer Industry Almanac) Emerging population/geopolitical and Address space

PDA, Pen-Tablet, Notepad,… ~20 million in 2004

Mobile phones Already 1 billion mobile phones delivered by the industry

Transportation 1 billion automobiles forecast for 2008 Internet access in Planes

Consumer devices Billions of Home and Industrial Appliances

IPv6 vs. IPv4: Address Comparison

IPv4 has a maximum of :

232 4 billion addresses

IPv6 has a maximum of :

2128 = (232)4 4 billion x 4 billion x 4 billion x 4 billion

Notation of IPv6 addresses:

Convention: The 128-bit IPv6 address is written as eight 16-bit integers (using hexadecimal digits for each integer)

CEDF:BP76:3245:4464:FACE:2E50:3025:DF12

Short notation: Abbreviations of leading zeroes:

CEDF:BP76:0000:0000:009E:0000:3025:DF12

CEDF:BP76:0:0:9E :0:3025:DF12

“:0000:0000” can be written as “::”

CEDF:BP76:0:0:FACE:0:3025:DF12 CEDF:BP76::FACE:0:3025:DF12

Features of IPv6 Larger Address Space

Aggregation-based address hierarchy

– Efficient backbone routing

Efficient and Extensible IP datagram

Stateless Address Auto configuration

Security (IPsec mandatory)

Mobility

Header

No Broadcast

Anycast Support

Smooth Transition

Extensibility

Routing in IPv6

As in IPv4, IPv6 has 2 families of routing protocols: IGP and EGP, and still uses the longest-prefix match routing algorithm

IGP RIPng (RFC 2080) Cisco EIGRP for IPv6 OSPFv3 (RFC 2740) Integrated IS-ISv6 (draft-ietf-isis-ipv6-02)

EGP : MP-BGP4 (RFC 2858 and RFC 2545)

Basic Address Types

Unicast:for one-to-onecommunication

Multicast:for one-to-manycommunication

Anycast:for one-to-nearestcommunication

Mobility Support in IPv6

Mobile computers are becoming commonplace.

Mobile IPv6 allows a node to move from one link to another without changing the address.

Movement can be heterogeneous, i.e., node can move from an Ethernet link to a cellular packet network.

Mobility support in IPv6 is more efficient than mobility support in IPv4.

Major Improvements of IPv6 Header

No option field: Replaced by extension header. Result in a fixed length, 40-byte IP header.

No header checksum: Result in fast processing.

No fragmentation at intermediate nodes: Result in fast IP forwarding.

IPv6 Today IPv6 Supported by every major OS vendor

Many core network services have support, particularly in the Open Source community

Smart device manufacturers have already developed products that leverage v6

Current operating systems that have IPv6 support

- HP-UX 11i

- Linux (Red hat, Mandrake, Debi an, Susie)

- BSD flavors (Free, Net, Open)

- Sun Solaris 8 and 9

- Windows 2000, XP, 7, 8

- IBM AIX (since release 4.3)

IPv6 Applications Support

Number of v6 applications growing

Services currently available:

- DNS, some DHCPv6

- Web (Server and browsers)

- E-mail (server - client availability still missing)

- Basic functions (FTP, Telnet, SSH, Ident, Whois, News)

Commercial firewalls now available.

IPv6 v/s IPv4 : No Broadcast in IPv6

– Replaced by Multicast

– Multicast scope provides flexibility

Uncontrolled fragmentation in IPv4

– Only a source node can fragment IPv6

– Limits packet size to minimum MTU in path (Maximum Transmission Unit)

Other features inherent to IPv6

- Security encryption

- Header encryption

- Sender authentication

- Privacy

Header comparison

IPv6 Terminology :

Node – A device that implements IPv6.

– A node can be a host or a router

– A node can be an entertainment system

– A node can be a PDA or cell phone

Router – A node that forwards IPv6 packets not explicitly addressed to itself.

– Routers operate at the Network Layer

– Routers use metrics to determine optimal paths which network traffic should be forwarded

Host – Any node that is not a router

– A host can be your computer at home

– A host can be your cell phone or PDA

Upper Layer – A protocol layer immediately above IPv6.

- TCP/UDP

- ICMP

- OSPF

Link – A communication facility or medium over which nodes can communicate at the Data Link Layer.

Neighbors – Nodes attached to the same link.

– 2 PC’s on a hub can be neighbors

– Hosts and routers can be neighbors

Interface – A node’s attachment to a link.

- A Network Interface Card (NIC) is an interface

- A node can have more than one interface

- Routers often have multiple interfaces

- A PC’s dial-up adapter is an interface

Address – An IPv6-layer identifier for an interface or a set of interfaces.

IPv6 organizations available today :

www.ipv6forum.net

www.v6pc.jp

www.ipv6-taskforce.org

www.hs247.com

www.ipv6.org