All you need to know about IPv6

During this article, we will start with an introduction on IP addressing and the types of IP addresses versions that we have, then exploring why we need IPv6 and what are the features and benefits introduced with IPv6, then take a look about details on how the IPv6 addressing space is divided and to work with, after that will talk about the steps required in order to start the process of  translation between IPv4 to IPv6 and the recommended deployment approach.

Introduction

The Internet Protocol is a worldwide interchanges convention works by moving information in little parcels that are autonomously steered across systems. Every datum parcel contains two numeric tends to that are the bundle's starting point and goal gadgets.

Since 1981, IPv4 has been the openly utilized adaptation of the Internet Protocol, and it is presently the establishment for most Internet correspondences. The primary openly utilized variant of the Internet Protocol, Version 4 (IPv4), gives a tending to the ability of 2³² or around 4.3 billion locations. This was esteemed adequate in the early structure phases of the Internet when the touchy development and overall expansion of systems were not envisioned.

IANA (Internet Assigned Numbers Authority) is the global authority which manages the IP address space all over the world and there are five regional Internet registries (RIR) which are managing the different regions in the world.

RIR’s responsible in their designated territories for assignment to end-users and local Internet registries, such as Internet service providers.

These RIR’s are:

•  African Network Information Centre (AfriNIC) .
•   American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN).
•  Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC) .
•  Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre (LACNIC).
• Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC).

Why IPv6?

During the principal decade of activity of the Internet, by the late 1980s, it became obvious that strategies must be created to save address space.

The foreseen deficiency has been the driving component in making and embracing a few new innovations, including Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR) in 1993, organize address interpretation (NAT).

There are a few propositions showed up and before the finish of 1992, the IETF reported a call for white papers and the formation of the IP Next Generation (IPng) territory of working gatherings. The Internet Engineering Task Force received the IPng model on July 25, 1994, with the development of a few IPng working gatherings.

By 1996, a progression of RFCs was discharged characterizing Internet Protocol adaptation 6 (IPv6), beginning with RFC 1883. (Form 5 was utilized by the test Internet Stream Protocol.)

The first RIR announced exhausting of the IPv4 address space was APNIC on April, 2011, and only reserving small space to be used for the translation to IPv6. Moving to IPv6 is the only long term solution available to overcome the limitation of IPv4.

IPv6 Features

Within this part, we will focus on the features that IPv6 has:

Large Address Space

The most significant element of IPv6 is a lot bigger location space than in IPv4.

The length of an IPv6 address is 128 bits, contrasted with 32 bits in IPv4.The address space in this way underpins 2¹²⁸ or around 3.4×10³⁸ locations.

By correlation, this adds up to around 5×10²⁸ locations for every one of the 6.8 billion individuals alive in 2010. It is common for IPv6 addresses to contain progressive hexadecimal fields of zeros.

To make IPv6 addresses less lumbering, two colons (::) might be utilized to pack progressive hexadecimal fields of zeros toward the start, center, or end of an IPv6 address.

Two colons (::) can be utilized just once in an IPv6 address, to speak to the longest progressive hexadecimal fields of zeros.

Multicasting

Multicasting, the transmission of a bundle to various goals in a solitary send activity, is a piece of the base detail in IPv6. IPv4 Broadcast parcels are perused by each hub that gets them Multicast bundles are just perused by hubs that have bought into that multicast gathering. It is a must to say that IPv6 is not depending on regular IP broadcasts.

The main advantages of multicasting are consuming less bandwidth; the sender can send the same packet to different receivers and mainly used for streaming and video services

Header Simplification

The IPv6 packet is composed of two parts:

1-      Control Payload  or tending and routing or steering”

•         Mandatory fixed header.
•     Optional extension headers

2-      The payload. “user data”

  

The packet header contains a fixed part with limited functions, and may contain optional/additional extensions for enabling specific features.

The below points summarize the main and important enhancements on IPv6 headers:

•       Replacing the “Option Field” with “Extension Header”, so the length of the IP header became 40-bytes
•      There is no checksum header in the packets, which means faster processing.
•       There is no fragmentation deployed within the intermediate nodes, which result in faster IP forwarding

Simplified processing by routers

The packet forwarding process of IPv6 in addition to the packet header became simple and fast

Despite the fact that IPv6 headers are at any rate double the size of IPv4 bundle headers, parcel handling by switches is commonly progressively effective. along these lines stretching out the start to finish standard of Internet plan.

End-to-End standard expresses that, at whatever point potential, interchanges convention activities ought to be characterized to happen toward the end-purposes of a correspondences framework and systems to communicate with each others

Stateless Address Auto configuration (SLAAC)

There are three different methods to configure IPv6 addresses on network interfaces:

·         Manually

·         Stateful via DHCPv6.

·         Stateless via ICMPv6.

Stateless Address Autoconfiguration (SLAAC) is one of the most helpful techniques to deploy out Internet delivers to IPv6 hubs. This strategy doesn't require any human mediation whatsoever from an IPv6 client.

In order for a client to be able to get IPv6 address via SLAAC method, then it is required to have within the network a router with IPv6 address in place

This router node is arranged by the system director and conveys Router Advertisement "RA" declarations onto the connection.

These declarations can permit the on-interface associated IPv6 hubs to arrange themselves with IPv6 address and directing parameters as determined in RFC2462, moving forward without any more human mediation.

Security (IPsec mandatory)

The security feature which is Internet Protocol Security (IPSec) is one of the main features developed for IPv6, knowing that it is also used within IPv4 after doing reverse-engineering for it. So it is normal to know that this feature is main and must for IPv6 while it is optional in IPv4 suite.

The main specifications of it are End-to-End Security, Encryption, and Authentication

IPv6 Addressing

There are different RFCs covering the IPv6 addressing and at the same time there are multiple types of messages used by IPv6 addresses clarified below:

• Unicast : point to point (Global, Link-local, Site local, Compatible).
•  Anycast: One to Nearest (Allocated from Unicast).
•  Multicast: One to Many.

On the other hand, there are different types of IPv6 addresses as detailed below:

1.  Link-Local Addresses

These are addresses assigned automatically once IPv6 host connected, just line the IPv4 address 169.254.xxx.xxx.. This address always begins with FE80:, and uses the Mac address within the last 48 bits.

    2. Unique Scope Address

This type of address is being used within the local enterprise networks in order to determine the boundaries of that network. It is also called the “Site Address”, and usually it starts with FD00::/8.

    3. Global Address

This address is the one used within the Internet space, the 3 high bits start with 001 (2000::/3). This IPv6 address space used for which is routable globally.

Just link IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses also have the following components:

·         IPv6 prefix, which is actually a routable network number

·         IPv6 interface ID, which is an identifier used to recognize the host

IPv6 depending on Classless Inter-Domain Routing with variable length network (so not Class A, B or C address subnets), and it is not using address classes

IPv6 prefixes are composed as an IPv6 address, trailed by a slice and the bit length of the prefix partition "or the system number" of the address.

IPv6 Deployment

Introducing the Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR), and using the NATing feature, helped to extend the lifecycle of IPv4 and delayed the aggressive dependency of IPv6. But this time came by February 2011 and the RIR started to announce the exhaustion of IPv4

Just before 3 years,  IPv6 Forum was founded by the IETF Deployment WG to drive deployment worldwide. Which lead to the creation of regional and local IPv6 Task Forces.

IPv6 implementation had been begun by numerous countries around the globe so as to confront the consumption of IPv4. The Internet society even announced World IPv6 Day Test Drive on June 8, 2011, and the main companies and content providers such as Google, Yahoo and Akamai participates in this event.

All major working frameworks and operating systems being used starting at 2010 on PCs and server frameworks have generation quality IPv6 usage.

Microsoft Windows has upheld IPv6 since Windows 2000, and underway prepared state starting with Windows XP. Windows Vista and later have improved IPv6 support.

Summary

In the end it is obvious to say that IPv6 is now a fact and already running on many ISP networks providing flexibility for both end-users and corporates. It is even facilitating the introduction of the Internet of Things “IoT” to the world. On the other hand, we must say that the full transformation from IPv4 to IPv6 will take some time, due to the dependency of the old running systems on IPv4 suite which will need time and efforts to be fully IPv6 dependent.