Goodbye, IPv4! Hello, IPv6! Internet traffics, insufficient amount of internet addressesthey are now resolved!

Yes, you read it right. Due to the high demands and the numerous complaints of the 21 st century internet users regarding the older protocol which is the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv6), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) developed the latest and more improved Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) to replace it. The recently developed protocol is said to fix the flaws of the IPv4 such as the constant internet traffics and insufficient amount of internet addresses. In the beginning of 1922, there were several proposals for the improvement of IPv4 so by September 1993, the IETF created IP Next Generation (IPng) to temporarily deal with the issues of IPv4. It was 1994 when IETF recommended the proposal for IPv6 to C. Partridge and F. Kastenholz after they released a memo called Technical Criteria for Choosing IP the Next Generation and by 1995, it was selected. The IPv6 was developed during the years 1995 up to the middle of 2012 and finally, it was launched on June 06, 2012. The World IPv6 Launch was attended by Microsoft and other members of the Internet Society. The most obvious advantage of the IPv6 compared to IPv4 is that it has larger address space. IPv6 uses the 128-bit address scheme, which means that the addresses are 128 bits long and number is 340 undecillion (4.3 X 10^9)which is said to supply the addresses of the next generations to come, while IPv4 uses the 32-bit address scheme, which means that the addresses are 32 bits long and number about 4.3 billion. It is an advantage because a large number of internet addresses means that any electronic device can have its own unique address. IPv6 also has a simplified and fixed IP header for flexibility and functionality, an advantage because in the IPv4, the headers could vary in different sizes, which slows the routing of information. In addition, a simplified header can accommodate new features or extensions. Another one of the IPv6s advantages is that it has improved routing of data, which means easier movement of information from a source to a destination. It is more efficient in IPv6 because it incorporates a hierarchal addressing structure that reduces the amount of information Internet routers must maintain and store, and a simplified header, which was mentioned above. IPv6 also has enhanced mobility features allowing different electronic devices to have their own, unique IP addresses. In IPv6, Internet Protocol security is integrated. IPv6 has a feature to authenticate the sender and then encode the transmitted data helping the IP Security easier to use and can help support broader data protection efforts. The characteristics of the IPv6 are the new header format, larger address space, efficient hierarchical addressing structure that was elaborated above. Other characteristics are stateless and stateful configuring of addresses, very helpful because on the IPv4, implementations must be configured either manually or through a stateful address of configuration protocol such as the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). Now, a stateless address that occurs in the

absence of a DHCP server and a stateful address that occurs in the presence of a DHCP server. Either way, it makes our work easier for it is automatic and simple. Another characteristic is that it enables a new protocol for neighboring node interaction on the same link. Lastly, the IPv6s extensibility. We can extend IPv6 for new characteristics by adding extension headers after its header. After knowing the features of the improved Internet Protocol version 6, we could really say that itll make our internet lives easier. Lets bid our goodbyes to IPv4 and say our joyous hellos to IPv6! SOURCES: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa450084.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv6 http://www.cybertelecom.org/dns/ipv6.htm