Question

Explain the difference between IPv4 and IPv6 addressing schemes and discuss that how many different IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are available for computers on the Internet?

Answer 1

KEY DIFFERENCE

• IPv4 is 32-Bit IP address whereas IPv6 is a 128-Bit IP address.
• IPv4 is a numeric addressing method whereas IPv6 is an alphanumeric addressing method.
• IPv4 binary bits are separated by a dot(.) whereas IPv6 binary bits are separated by a colon(:).
• IPv4 offers 12 header fields whereas IPv6 offers 8 header fields.
• IPv4 supports broadcast whereas IPv6 doesn’t support broadcast.
• IPv4 has checksum fields while IPv6 doesn’t have checksum fields
• IPv4 supports VLSM (Virtual Length Subnet Mask) whereas IPv6 doesn’t support VLSM.
• IPv4 uses ARP (Address Resolution Protocol) to map to MAC address whereas IPv6 uses NDP (Neighbour Discovery Protocol) to map to MAC address.

IPv4 uses two types of addresses: unicast and multicast. Unicast addresses are the Class A, B, and C addresses and are used to identify a single host on the Internet. Multicast addresses are used to identify multiple hosts for the delivery of multicast traffic (discussed in more detail in Chapter 9, "Multicast—What the Post Office Can't Do"). IPv6 has three major address types: unicast, multicast, and anycast.

IPv6 unicast addresses are divided into five groups:

0:0:0:0:0:0:156.26.32.1 = ::156.26.32.1 = ::9C1A2001

0:0:0:0:0:FF:156.26.32.1 = ::FFFF:9C1A:2001

• Global unicast addresses—Equivalent in function to an IPv4 unicast address using 64 bits for the network ID and 64 bits for the host ID.

• Site-local unicast addresses—Equivalent to the IPv4 private addresses such as 10.0.0.0 and 172.16.0.0.

• Link-local unicast addresses—An IPv6 address that is automatically configured on an interface allowing hosts on the same subnet to communicate with each other without the need for a router.

• IPv4-compatible IPv6 addresses—Used to transport IPv6 messages over an IPv4 network. An IPv4 address is placed in the low-order 32 bits of an IPv6 address. For example, the IPv4-compatible IPv6 address for the IPv4 address 156.26.32.1 is

• IPv4-mapped IPv6 addresses—Similar to an IPv4-compatible address, and used to represent an IPv4 interface as an IPv6 interface using 16 ones before the IPv4 address. For example, the IPv4-mapped IPv6 address for the IPv4 address 156.26.32.1 is

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