What's the Deal With IPv4 and IPv6? VSYS Blog

What’s the Deal With IPv4 and IPv6?
Since you probably haven’t experienced any problems with IPv4 that have prevented you from going online, you might be wondering why there is even a need for IPv6. What exactly is the benefit of upgrading an IP? Is IPv6 an improvement over IPv4?
Both (IPv4) and (IPv6) are currently in use. While both are commonly used to track down the origin of a given network connection, they do so in notably different ways.
The Internet Protocol allows computers, as well as various additional gadgets/ devices, to exchange data and speak with one another over a network (IP).
There isn’t a standard format for IP (internet protocol) addresses at all. IP is the standard that establishes the rules that must be followed when exchanging information packets between computer networks. In order for one device to communicate with another device over the internet, it is necessary for each device to have its own distinct identifier. IP works in conjunction with the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) to ensure that everything connected to the internet is aware of where data should be sent and how it should be sent. IPv4 is currently the fourth IP system and the most common system overall; however, many people are working toward making IPv6, which is the sixth system, the preferred system.
Differentiating IPv4 and IPv6: What’s the Deal?
IPv4 and IPv6 differ primarily in two respects: address format and address space. Due to IPv4’s 32-bit addressing scheme, it can support a staggering 4.3 sextillion unique IP addresses. IPv6’s 128-bit addressing format generates an almost infinite number of possible addresses—roughly 340 undecillion—to accommodate the expected growth of the Internet in the future. IPv6 is a more advanced and, importantly secure internet protocol because it has built-in security features, better network auto-configuration, and support for routing of greater efficiency. IPv6 support for more efficient routing is made possible by the combination of these features.
Simply put, what is a protocol?
The Internet Protocol (IP) is a set of rules responsible for transmitting data across various networks and ensuring that it reaches its intended recipient.
In order to facilitate a quicker and more efficient data transfer process, a computer will divide the information being transmitted across a network into smaller pieces, known as data packets.
Each data packet includes the IP addresses of both its source and its intended recipient. An IP address is a number that is used to identify a specific computer or another device on the web or a (LAN).
A device needs a correct IP address in the same way that a person needs a mailing address in order to send mail.
There are many possible formats for an IP address, one of which is shown below:
45.134.172.15
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), headquartered in the United States, is the organization in charge of allocating IP addresses and administering the IP address pool.
One must always keep in mind that a domain name, which is the address of a website, is not the same as an IP address.
What is the Point of IPv4?
IPv4 was the original and still the most popular version of IP. Data delivery and service quality are not assured because it is based on a best-effort delivery strategy.
As a result, users may encounter delays and other problems, depending on the current volume of internet traffic.
Due to the connectionless nature of IPv4, data packets are sent without first checking to see if the destination device is ready to receive them. The ability to reroute packets is a major benefit of this type of protocol. In the event of network congestion or a failed router, this function is invaluable.
In Detail, What Is IPv6?
The current version of IP is known as IPv6, which stands for “Internet Protocol Next Generation” (IPng).
It performs a similar function to IPv4, the version of IP responsible for giving each internet-connected device its own unique identifier. Nonetheless, IPv6 employs a 128-bit address format as opposed to IPv4’s 32-bit format.
Approximately 340 undecillion unique addresses can be used in a 128-bit address space, which is 1,028 times exceeding IPv4.
Numbers and letters make up an IPv6 address. It consists of eight sequences of four hexadecimal digits, each separated by a colon.
This is what an IPv6 address looks like:
2a09:2dc0::1
IPv6 has a more streamlined header and a larger pool of available IP addresses compared to IPv4. The IP header is the part of an IP packet that stores the packet’s metadata.
IPv6 employs a new, different format for its header, which was designed to reduce the header’s overhead. Since this is the case, packet processing efficiency is increased.
IPv6 stands out from IPv4 because it eliminates the need for Network Address Translation to repair broken end-to-end connectivity on the IP layer (NAT).
In this regard, the ease with which VoIP and QoS can be deployed and implemented is a prime example.
Why There Are Two?
IPv6 was developed to overcome the shortcomings of IPv 4. In spite of the fact that the second iteration was introduced only a decade after the first, the primary reason that it is necessary is because of the expansive nature of the Internet.
The format of the address is one of the ways in which IPv6 differs from its predecessor, IPv4. IPv6 supports 128-bit addresses in contrast its predecessor, IPv4, which only allows for 32-bit addresses. IPv6 is able to recognize the letters a through f in addition to the digits 0 through 9 that are supported by IPv4. The address space, which represents the total number of distinct IP addresses, expands by a factor of two for each additional bit.
Because of this, IPv6 allows for the creation of a greater number of IP addresses than IPv4 does. IPv6 is capable of creating 340 undecillion unique addresses, whereas IPv4 can only generate slightly more than 4 billion of them (that’s 340 billion billion billion billion!). It is becoming abundantly clear that the limitation of 4 billion IP addresses that were set by IPv4 simply will not suffice forever.
The number of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses that can be used by the public is restricted by governing authorities, but there are still significantly more IPv6 IP address combinations than there are IPv4 combinations. It is extremely unlikely that we will be out of them any time in the near future.
The need for two IP versions seems unnecessary or is it?
Although IPv4 addresses are scarce, they are not nearly enough to accommodate all of the Internet-enabled gadgets in use today. The proliferation of IoT (Internet of Things) gadgets has made this point all the more salient.
IPv6 was developed to accommodate the need for more IP addresses on the Internet. IPv4 will continue to be used even as the world gradually transitions to a newer protocol.
While IPv6 access has been enabled for many popular content providers like Facebook and Netflix, only 19.1% of Alexa’s top 10 million websites actually use it. It’s clear that IPv6 still has a ways to go before it’s widely used on the web.
Concerns Regarding IPv4 and IPv6 Security
IP Security (IPSec) is a suite of protocols built into IPv6 that serve to encrypt IP-level communications over networks. Therefore, IPv6 has more benefits for users than IPv4.
Each of IPSec’s three components safeguards a different facet of network communication:
Authentication Headers (AH) allow a network to ascertain the originality of a packet and the integrity of a transmission by providing information about the packet’s origin and any modifications made to the transmission. And they can stop hackers from constructing malware-infested data packets in the first place.
By encrypting the data and adding an extra layer of authentication, Security Payload Encapsulation (ESP) ensures the safety of data transmission.
ISAKMP, or the Internet Security Association and Key Management Protocol, is a standard for determining how two devices will protect one another while exchanging sensitive information.
While IPSec is compatible with IPv4, the decision to use it in that protocol is ultimately up to the users and their service providers. Additionally, the NAT-based communication protocol is not supported by this framework.
IPv6 makes it harder to conduct man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks by encrypting data at both ends of a connection and verifying its integrity. This is an additional safety benefit of IPv6.
IPv6 uses a protocol called Secure Neighbor Discovery (SEND), which allows for safer name resolution. This makes it harder for malicious actors to listen in on a conversation between two legitimate hosts by rerouting traffic between them.
If properly designed and implemented, IPv6 has the potential to offer improved security solutions over IPv4. The deployment of security measures such as anti-malware software, a firewall, and an authentication system is also required.
Is There an Obvious Difference: IPv4 vs. IPv6 When It Comes to Security?
In spite of the fact that IPv6 is a more recent protocol and, consequently, you might think that everything in terms of security is also better, this is not entirely the case. Both IPv4 and IPv6 are susceptible to a variety of vulnerabilities, including address flooding, man-in-the-middle attacks, packet captures, and others.
The most important thing that most of us should take away from this is the realization that transitioning to IPv6 will not solve the major issues that plague internet-related activities, such as viruses, data theft, monitoring, and so on. Despite the fact that IPv6 and IPv4 operate in fundamentally different ways, plenty of dangers still exist, regardless of which protocol you use to communicate over the Internet.
Rate of IPv4 versus IPv6
The security firm Sucuri ran a battery of speed tests on popular websites to compare the performance of IPv4 and IPv6 direct connections and found no significant difference.
However, there is growing proof that IPv6 is much quicker than IPv4. The Akamai study is one example, showing that IPv6 performs better than IPv4 in the four largest U.S. mobile networks.
Another illustration is the finding by the Facebook engineering team that using IPv6 to access Facebook is typically 10-15% faster than using IPv4.
The most noticeable difference between the two protocols is that IPv6 connections have easier network access than IPv4 connections. However, IPv4 packets still need to go through stateful NAT servers on their way to the Internet because their headers are smaller. Even though IPv6’s headers are bigger, this remains true.
How IPv4 Will Develop in the Future
Nowadays, IPv4 addresses are in short supply. The RIPE NCC, one of the RIRs, has announced that it can no longer assign IPv4 addresses.
Regardless, IPv4 will be used for some time longer on the Internet before it is finally retired. Some examples of these explanations are as follows:
It can be expensive to replace IPv4 hardware. It can be time-consuming and expensive to upgrade software and hardware that was developed with IPv4 compatibility in mind. They don’t get along, so that’s one problem. Many legacy systems and devices still can’t communicate with IPv6. A DNS error is just one of the problems that could arise from this, so many ISPs are taking a “wait and see” stance. Instead of waiting for more networks to migrate to IPv6, many network operators prefer to stick with IPv4 due to the high costs of running both IPv4 and IPv6 concurrently or implementing dual-stack.
Making Preparations for IPv6
While staying with IPv4 may seem like the simpler option, the reality is that the supply and demand for IPv4 addresses affect the cost of these addresses, making their deployment a costly endeavor. However, IPv6 addresses are not free; they must be purchased in advance.
Additionally, there are a few drawbacks to utilizing NAT instead of IPv6. NAT was developed as an interim solution, so it’s possible that it won’t play nice with all your favorite apps and protocols.
Implementing IPv6 seems to be the only solution for internet growth in light of these problems.
The switch to IPv6 has fortunately already begun. Google statistics show that 37% of the world’s Internet users have adopted IPv6 so far.
The number of IPv6-compatible websites and users upgrading their software and hardware is growing in tandem with the IPv6 migration of major organizations like internet service providers (ISPs), mobile carriers, and others.
The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 may proceed at a snail’s pace for the reasons we’ve already discussed, but we can anticipate a more rapid deployment in the years to come.
Which is superior?
Because IPv6 is the sixth and most recent internet protocol system, it was designed with increased security, speed, and efficiency in mind. Certain characteristics of the IPv6 system, such as its much longer bit length, are inherently useful, while others are simply enhanced capabilities that the network environment (and the internet in general) have yet to fully exploit. Nonetheless, IPv6 must be transitioned to due to IPv4 address limitations alone, and it is critical to ensure that future networking efforts are more IPv6-oriented.
Simultaneously, IPv4 is not going away, so websites and networking equipment must remain backward compatible with IPv4 to ensure maximum cohesion. The overall goal of internet protocol addressing standards, as it has always been, is to ensure that networking equipment can work together in accordance with a universal system. Reconciling various systems to achieve these goals is now a more important technical issue, but it is also not a problem.
In fact, IPv4 retains some characteristics that IPv6 does not, making it useful for its novelty as well as the fact that the vast majority of networking equipment was built to IPv4 standards. As IPv6 becomes more widely adopted, it must accommodate everything that IPv4 has built in order to be as backward compatible as possible, but it is also unlikely to completely replace it until the far future.
Conclusion
The internet protocol allows computers and other devices to send and receive data over the Internet. IPv4 and IPv6 are the two versions of IP currently in use.
In spite of all the similarities between IPv4 and IPv6, there are a few key differences:
IPv6’s improved security features, such as end-to-end encryption and support for the Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), make it a preferable protocol for preventing Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks. For these and other reasons, it is considered safer than IPv4.
IPv6 is much quicker than IPv4 when accessing a network, in part because it bypasses the need for NAT. Compared to IPv4, IPv6 is much more efficient, according to studies conducted by Akamai and Facebook.
Due to the exponential growth in the number of Internet-enabled devices, IPv4 simply doesn’t have enough addresses to go around. Nonetheless, IPv4 will continue to be used for the foreseeable future because many IPv4 addresses are sold and re-used, and a sizable percentage of users still rely on NAT. Timeframes in the years or decades range are possible for the worldwide deployment of IPv6.
Bohdan Pavlyuk
author
Pavlyuk Bohdan specializes in Kubernetes and Cloud technologies. Thus, he progressed to becoming one of our top field specialists within a matter of a few years and impressively shifting from a trainee potion to a full-trained professional DevOps. He deals with a broad range of deep-knowledge requiring areas, such as working on Linux-based infrastructure; configuration and managing databases; CI/CD platforms, Kubernetes; Helm, Docker; Python, Ansible; TCP/IP, DNS, HTTP/HTTPS, SSH. Despite his relatively young yet highly prospective age, Bohdan demonstrates impressive expertness.