Introduction
Since its inception, the Internet has continued to evolve and so is the number of users. All over the world, businesses are actively using the Internet to reach a wider market and to remain relevant to the needs of consumers. While this is happening, experts are worried about the effectiveness of Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) as the predominant Internet protocol (Mei-Yan 275). Internet Protocol (IP) is a key component of the Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) suite and permits data transmission in the form of IP datagram (Mei-Yan 275).
Weaknesses of IPv4
According to Durand (79), IPv4 has been used extensively for the last over 30 years. There are, however, several limitations of IPv4. According to Mei-Yan (275), IPv4 is quite difficult to configure and it’s Quality of Service (QoS) is greatly reduced. In addition, this network protocol makes a network vulnerable to security attacks (Mei-Yan 275). Another serious shortcoming of IPv4 is that it cannot meet the ever-increasing demands of Internet addresses (Durand 79). According to Cerf (96), there was approximately 5% of IPv4 address space available by the year 2010.
Growth and Deployment IPv6
IPv6 refers to version 6 of Internet Protocol. Durand (79) considers IPv6 to be an advancement of IPv4 which has been used for years. Cleary, its growth was prompted by the deficiencies of IPv4 and with time, it is expected to completely take over as the leading Internet protocol (Mei-Yan 275).
However, considering that IPv4 is widely used by many the change to IPv6 can only happen gradually and a radical change may not be possible (Durand 79). This change process is also complicated by the fact that the popularity of IPv4 among users far outweighs that of IPv6 (Durand 79). There is also a lack of infrastructure needed to support IPv6 and the total cost of all the requisite human and non-human resources is quite high (Durand 79).
Although some people regard IPv6 as a failed project its growth and implementation are unavoidable (Caicedo, Joshi & Tuladhar 36). Caicedo et al. (36) further point out that several nations faced with the address limitation of IPv4 have prioritized the transition to IPv6.
The problem of changing to IPv6 is further complicated by the presence of many networks using differing standards. The Internet Engineering Task Force Next Generation Transition (IETF NGtrans) group developed tools to enable a smooth transition from IPv4 to IPv6. Among these tools are the hybrid stack and tunneling mechanisms (Durand 80). The hybrid stack implementation places the two protocols on the same stack and each communicates with peers. Where both protocols are present, IPv6 is chosen for better performance. The same code is accessed and used by applications to access either protocol (Durand 80). Figure 1 shows the implementation of a hybrid stack.
Where tunneling is used, it facilitates the connection of isolated IPv6 networks through an area covered by IPv4 networks (Durand 80). Figure 2 shows how IPv6 is carried within an IPv4 packet.
Benefits of IPv6
As explained elsewhere in this paper, the challenges of using IPv4 pushed experts to start thinking of a solution and this led to the advent of IPv6.
One of the main advantages of IPv6 has to do with the possibility of using a large address space. With the IPv6 protocol, every single site on the Internet is allocated a 48-bit prefix that allows for 65,000 subnets per site (Durand 79). This eliminates the address limitation problem seen in IPv4 and causes an increase in the number of IP address values (Mei-Yan 275).
While IPv6 uses addresses that are 128 bits long, IPv4 uses only 32 bits. With the larger address space in IPv6, it is possible to generate 3.4 × 1038 addresses and deal with the problem of addressing translation requirements in IPv4 (Caicedo et al. 37).
Other benefits include auto-configuration and integration of IPSec into the IPv6 protocol (Durand 79). Protocols related to IPv6 are also meant to provide security for various mobile devices. QoS in IPv6 is also improved to ensure that critical data is delivered safely (Frankel & Green 83).
Security in IPv6
Whilst IPv6 offers better performance than IPv4, users must be exposed to its dark side. According to Frankel and Green (83), the IPv6 working group intended to design secure protocols and as a result, IPSec was developed to provide security at the network layer. Though IPSec is integrated into IPv6, it is rarely used and this puts networks at risk. Managing IPSec infrastructure is also a difficult task and this just adds to the problem of security (Caicedo et al. 37). Caicedo et al. (37) also argued that some useful features of IPv6 that have their security challenges that may not be understood and this is a major drawback to its acceptance. Also, when changing from IPv4 to IPv6, both network protocols coexist and this creates an avenue for attacks that end up compromising network security. Finally, as the use of IPv6 continues to grow, hackers will certainly shift their attention and will start interfering with IPv6 networks (Caicedo et al. 37).
Conclusion
Given that the use of the Internet will continue to rise, the conversion from IPv4 to IPv6 will keep happening. It is quite obvious that the increased number of users will further deplete the available IPv4 addresses and users who are not ready to make the change now will be compelled to migrate against their wish (Cerf 95).
Works Cited
Caicedo, Carlos E., Joshi, James B.D. & Tuladhar, Summit R. IPv6 Security Challenges. New York: IEEE. 2009. Web.
Cerf, Vinton G. 2012 Isn’t the End of the World. New York: IEEE. 2010. Web.
Durand, Alain. Deploying IPv6. New York: IEEE. 2001. Web.
Frankel, Sheila & Green, David. Internet Protocol Version 6. New York: IEEE. Web. 2011.
Mei-Yan, Zhenqi-Wang. The Research and Application of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). New York: IEEE. 2011. Web.