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What will really drive IPv6 implementation?

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With the ever increasing number of online users, IPv4 is certainly about to exhaust soon. Therefore, IPv6 has been developed, to curb the problem resultant of the projected exhaustion of IPv4 Addresses. Have we ever thought about how this transition from IPv4 to IPv6 will happen and what will drive the implementation of IPv6 in the real future? Subhashini Prabhakar, chief technology manager, Dax Networks remarks that IPv6 contains addressing and control information to route packets for the next generation Internet; and believes that the expansion of the Internet is important and upgrades are sometimes warranted.

With only 32-bit capacity, IPv4 addresses have become relatively scarce, forcing some organizations to use Network Address Translation (NAT) to map multiple private addresses to a single public IP address. While NAT promotes conservation of the public address space, it does not support standards-based network layer security or the correct mapping of all higher layer protocols and can create problems when connecting two organizations that use the same private address space. The continued expansion of Internet-connected devices and appliances continues to put greater and greater stress on the public IPv4 address space.

There are new technologies like 3G and WiMAX being implemented with importance in demand for IP address. Decrease in broadband rates, in turn offering higher bandwidth at lower cost has resulted in increasing trend in the adoption of Internet among the end customers.

In technical terms, there are many reasons why IPv6 is important. In case of IPv6 there is no broadcast and only Multicast, no network mask and only prefix length. One key benefit is that IPv6 can re-create end-to-end communications without the need for NAT – a requirement for a new generation of shared-experience and real-time applications.

IPV6 brings quality of service, required for several new applications such as IP telephony, video/audio, interactive games or ecommerce.

It is an advanced network protocol with approximately 340,282,366,920,938,463,374,607,431,768,211,465 available addresses. With such a wide range of IP address it becomes very easy to overcome the shortage of IPv4 supply contributing to the demanding growth of internet services.

IPv6 has been designed in such a way to work concurrently with IPv4. The protocol enables IPv6 packets to be tunneled through existing IPv4 networks and also sets the stage for a relatively smooth, gradual transition to IPv6.This is possible without much change in hardware thereby ensuring total cost of ownership. Most of the networking players today support IPv6 functionality in most of their products making this to happen.

There are a number of transition mechanisms involved which includes dual stack, tunneling and automatic tunneling, configured tunneling proxing and translation.

The new Internet protocol will give practically unlimited addresses besides a host of new and advanced features for running the future communication networks, such as:
• Simplified packet header for routing efficiency
• Mandatory IP Security (IPSec) implementation for all IPv6 devices
• Improved support for mobile IP and mobile computing devices
• Enhanced multicast support with increased addresses and efficient mechanisms
• Multi-homing

IPv6 provides a platform for new Internet functionality. This includes support for real-time flows, provider selection, host mobility, end-to- end security, auto-configuration, and auto-reconfiguration.

There a many factors which drive IPv6 deployment, some of which include:
• Simplified network designs
• Increase in demand for products and services.
• Rapidly growing internet and domain space
• Adoption of new technologies among growing enterprises
• Increased usage of mobile device for internet access
• Circuit switched WAN networks transitioning to IP based networks
• Ease of Configuration
• Large address space
• Enhanced Security
• Efficient routing

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