Why we need IPv6

IPv4 stands for Internet Protocol version 4. It is the underlying technology that makes it possible for us to connect our devices to the web. Whenever a device access the Internet (whether it’s a PC, Mac, Smartphone or other device), it is assigned a unique, numerical IP address such as 8.8.x.x. To send data from one computer to another through the web, a data packet must be transferred across the network containing the IP addresses of both devices. Without IP addresses computers would not be able to communicate and send data to each other. It’s essential to the infrastructure of the web.

Figure 1: Regional Internet Registry’s

Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible for global coordination of the Internet Protocol addressing systems, as well as the Autonomous System Numbers used for routing Internet traffic.IPv6 is the sixth revision to the Internet Protocol and the successor to IPv4. It functions similarly to IPv4 in that it provides the unique, numerical IP addresses necessary for Internet enabled devices to communicate. However, it does support one major difference it utilizes 128-bit addresses. IPv4 uses 32 bits for its Internet addresses. That means it can support 2^32 IP addresses in total around 4.29 billion. That may seem like a lot, but all 4.29 billion IP addresses have now been assigned to various institutions, leading to the crisis we face today. Therefore, it can support 2^128 Internet addresses --340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them to be exact. That’s a lot of addresses, so many that it requires a hexadecimal system to display the addresses. In other words, there are more than enough IPv6 addresses to keep the Internet operational for a very, very long time.