IPv6 was specifically designed to unravel address space exhaustion. Experts began to point out concerns about the exhaustion problem even in the 1980s. Besides, shortly after the launch of IPv4, its limitations in terms of scalability and capability became apparent. IPv4 needed some add-ons, like ICMP and ARP, to work.

The reduction of the IPv4 address space was the key motivating factor for the transition to IPv6. As additional regions of the world gained more and more connected to the global Internet, a shortage of IPv4 addresses became an issue. The demands on the web were growing to keep up with the devices that connect to the Internet, and IPv6 responded better than the previous version.

IPv6 address space will be allocated by the IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority), which has regional representatives who deal with issuing IP addresses in their areas.

IPv6 is that the latest version of the web Protocol, which identifies devices across the web so that they are often located. Every device that uses the internet is identified through its IP address for internet communication to work. In that respect, it’s just like the street addresses and postal codes you need to know to mail a letter.

The previous version, IPv4, uses a 32-bit addressing scheme to support 4.3 billion devices in the world which was thought to be enough. However, the expansion of the web, personal computers, smartphones and now Internet of Things devices proves that the planet needed more addresses.

3 Importance of IPv6 over IPv4

Security:

The improved security, improved performance and efficiency are the major advantage of IPv6 protocol over IPv4. It enables internet service providers to scale back the size of their routing tables by making them more hierarchical. It also supports the more-secure name resolution. IPsec: which provides confidentiality, authentication and data integrity are backed into IPv6 to add more security feature in IPv6.

Connectivity:

IPv6 allows IoT products to be uniquely addressable without having to figure around all of the normal NAT and firewall issues. Larger and more advanced host devices have all kinds of tools to support working with firewalls and NAT routers easier, but small IoT endpoints don’t. By using IPv6, many of those issues become easier for TCP/IP enabled IoT devices to handle.

Simple Network Configuration:

Address auto-configuration is pre-built into IPv6 protocol. Generally, a router sends the prefix of the local link in its router advertisements. The host device can then generate its IP address by attaching its link-layer (MAC) address in the table, converted into Extended Universal Identifier (EUI) 64-bit format, to the 64 bits of the local link prefix.

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