Research Paper on Internet Protocol

Internet Protocol version 6 (or IPv6) is generally referred to as the Internet layer protocol assigned for packet-switched internet works. It was created as the alternative of IPv4, the most popular and the first designed version of the Internet Protocol for the common utilization of the Internet services.

IPv6 is said to have bigger space for address that makes it flexible to allocate routing traffic and addresses. Larger length of the address excludes the need to involve network address translation for the avoidance of the address exhaustion, as well as makes aspects of the address assignment simpler along with the renumbering when changing providers of Internet connectivity. The first version of the Internet Protocol- IPv4- provides the addressing capability of nearly four billion addresses. IPv6 is different from the earlier version in many aspects.

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It provides the larger address space, and addresses are 128 bits long, when in the IPv4 they are just 32 bits, and they are classified into three basic types- multicast, unicast and anycast. The unicast address defines a single network interface. Packets that are sent to the unicast address are passed to that specific interface. Unicast IPv6 addresses can have a scope that finds its reflection in more concrete address names: link-local address, global unicast address, and unique local unicast address. The anycast address is designed to group interfaces, which belong to different nodes. A packet that is sent to the anycast address is transferred to just one of the member interfaces, which appears to be typically the “nearest” in accordance to the protocol’s routing distance choice. Anycast addresses can’t be easily identified for the reason that they have the structure of normal unicast addresses, and differentiate only by being introduced into the routing protocol at multiple points of the network. The multicast address is also guided to a set of interfaces that usually pertain to different nodes. A packet sent to a multicast address is transferred to all the interfaces that are identified by that address.

IPv6 introduced the issue of the address scopes that define the span in which an address can be determined as the unique interface identifier. Mentioned spans are the site network, the local link and the global network.

IPv6 configured interfaces usually have more than just one address- one for link-local address, local link, and some additional for global addressing or site- local. IPv6 also introduced the concept of the scope zones, and each address can appertain to one zone that corresponds to its scope. There is also the link zone that contains all network interfaces that are connected to one link. Addresses uniqueness is just maintained inside the zone of the given scope.

IPv6 also adopts the new class of addresses that are referred to as multicast addresses, which are undividable part of the IPv6 base specifications. And what is important to be mentioned- there are no broadcast addresses in this particular version. Internet Protocol Security, the IP authentication and encryption protocol, is the substantial part of the IPv6 base protocol suite. IP packet header support is obligatory in IPv6, unlike in the previous version of the protocol, in which it is optional.

IPv6 packets are assigned to minimize header processing at intermediate routers. Even though the addresses in IPv6 are four times greater, the reserve headers are just twice the size of the reserve IPv4 header. IPv4 supported a checksum packet header field, which covers the total packet header. As far as definite fields (for instance, as the TTL field) switch during forwarding, the checksum have to be recalculated by each router. IPv6 has no mistake checking at the Internet Layer, but instead of this involves transport protocols and Link Layer to do checking of the errors. As checksum calculation in modern backbone routers is generally done in hardware at link speed, performance gains based on excluded checksums might be marginal in IPv6.

The IPv6 packet header includes the new “Flow Label” field for routers prioritizing packet delivery. The Flow Label substitutes the IPv4 “Service Type” field.

IPv4 has a defined size (of 40 bytes) of option parameters. In IPv6, options are inculcated as supplementary extension headers after the IPv6 header that restricts their size only by the size of the total packet.

Until IPv6 totally supersedes IPv4 that is not the most probable thing to happen in the nearest future, a series of so-called transition mechanisms are necessary to provide IPv6-only hosts with an opportunity to gain access to IPv4 services and to permit isolated IPv6 networks and hosts to reach the IPv6 Internet over the IPv4 infrastructure.

As far as IPv6 is the reactionary extension of IPv4, it is comparatively easy to write a network stack that supports both IPv6 and IPv4 while sharing most of the code. Such an installation is called a dual stack, and the host that implements a dual stack is called a dual-stack host. The description of this approach can be found in RFC 4213.

In order to get access to IPv6 Internet, an isolated network or host must be capable to utilize the existing IPv4 infrastructure to carry IPv6 packets. This is implemented by using a technique that is known as tunneling, which is made up of encapsulating IPv6 packets within IPv4, actually using IPv4 as a link layer for IPv6.

IPv6 packets can be immediately encapsulated within IPv4 packets using protocol number 41. They can also be encapsulated within UDP packets, for instance aiming to cross NAT device or router that blocks traffic of protocol 41. The implementation of the generic encapsulation schemes, such as AYIYA or GRE, is also possible.

Automatic tunneling I said to be the technique where the tunnel endpoints are automatically defined by the routing infrastructure.

Teredo is an automatic tunneling technique that involves UDP encapsulation and is said to be capable of crossing multiple NAT boxes. Teredo is not unfolded today, but the pilot version of Teredo is installed with the Windows XP SP2 IPv6 stack. 6to4, IPv6 and Teredo are enabled by default in Windows Vista, Apple’s AirPort Extreme and Mac OS X Leopard.

Configured tunneling is generally referred to as a technique where the tunnel endpoints are configured extensively, either by a human operator or by an automatic service that is called a tunnel broker. Configured tunneling is often more definite and easier to debug than automatic tunneling, and that is why it is recommended for big, well-administered networks.

As to the situation of 2007, IPv6 alacrity is presently not considered in most consumer purchasing decisions. Some equipment is not IPv6-capable, and therefore it might need to be upgraded or replaced beforehand if connectivity from or to new users and to servers using IPv6 addresses is needed.

As with the year-2000 compliance, IPv6 compatibility is predominantly a firmware/software issue. Nevertheless, unlike the year-2000 issue, there seems to be virtually no attempt to ensure compliance of older software and equipment by manufacturers. In addition, even compliance of products now available is unlikely for many types of equipment and software. This is stipulated by only a recent realization that IPv4 exhaustion is inevitable, and the hope that we will be able to get by for a comparatively long time with a joint IPv4 and IPv6 situation. There is a persistent competitive struggle going on in the internet community regarding the transition periods. In particular, the essential question is whether nearly all internet servers should be ready to serve to new IPv6-only clients by 2012.

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