IPv4 and IPv6
Network protocols are formal standards and policies comprised of rules, procedures and formats that define communication between two or more devices over a network. There are many network protocols used between two networks. One of the main network protocol is the Internet Protocol (IP). The internet protocol is the method or protocol by which data is sent from one computer to another on the internet. The host on the internet has at least one IP address that uniquely identifies it from all the other computers on the internet. An IP address is a logical numeric address that is assigned to every single device that is connected to a network.
There are two versions in IP.
IPv4-(Internet Protocol version 4)
IPv6-(Internet Protocol version 6)
Internet Protocol version 4: ( IPv4 )
IPv4 is a protocol for packet-switched link layer networks. It is one of the core protocols of standard-based inter-networking methods on the internet and was the first version deployed for production in the ARPANET in 1983. IPv4 uses 32-bit source and destination address fields which limit the address space to 4.3 billion addresses.
Internet Protocol version 6: ( IPv6 )
The limitation in IPv4 stimulated the development of IPv6 in the 1990s. IPv6 is more advanced and has better features compared to IPv4. It has the capability to provide an infinite number of addresses. It is replacing IPv4 to accommodate the growing number of networks worldwide and help solve the IP address exhaustion problem. IPv6 was developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force.
One of the main difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is their address space. The size of IPv4 is 32 bits whereas the size of IPv6 is 128 bits. Another main difference is that IPv4 address appears as four 1 byte decimal numbers, segregated by a dot and in IPv6 IP address appear as hexadecimal numbers that are segregated by colons. The security level in IPv4 is less than the IPv6, because the IPv6 has a built-in strong security such as encryption authentication. The size of header in IPv4 is 20 bytes whereas IPv6 has 40 bytes. Currently most ISP's use IPv4 instead of IPv6 though it is advanced.
