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Are you Ready for IPv6?
According to information I gleaned from IPv6.com, the new internet protocol has a lot more going on than expanding the number of available network addresses. It has features enabling new hardware and software to work more efficiently.
Summarizing their site, they list 10 key improvements over the 30 year old IPv4 internet protocol.
• Larger Address Limit IPv4 = 32 bit, IPv6 = 128 bit
• Better End to End Connectivity – No NAT required because addresses may communicate directly
• Auto Configuring Devices – DHCP on steroids
• Simplified Header Leading to Faster Routing
• Better Security – Integrated into Protocol
• Increased Quality of Service by Optimizing Flow
• Optimized Routable Multi-Cast, Any-Cast to nearest node
• Optimized Mobile Routing – Handles infrequent connection/disconnection efficiently
• Ease of Address Administration
• Multi-homing, allowing a single site to be found through multiple paths
• Works alongside existing IPv4 hardware and software
Most of these features are targeted to provide increased reliability, scalability, maintainability, and security.
Consider the challenges that have arisen over the last 30 years. Security was added after the protocol was defined, and is enabled on either end of the network connection. IP address management is tedious in large networks. Managing traffic through switches and firewalls is a work of art. Certain communication methods are difficult on network hardware, such as multicasts. Voice and Video streaming are frequent uses of our networks.
In today’s world, with mobile devices moving from one provider to another as they change cell towers, or the benefit of multi cast for things such as images and/or voice, certain networking techniques that cause network congestion in IPv4 actually become beneficial in IPv6.
Most computers and operating systems ship today with IPv6 enabled, and work with IPv4 as well.
Are you ready to take advantage of IPv6 today? Do you plan to upgrade your switching, routing or firewall hardware and software to take advantage of IPv6? Have you run into difficulties in your implementation of this new protocol?
Share you thoughts with our readers. Send you input to btaylor@sswug.org.
Cheers,
Ben
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