IP address: IPv4 & IPv6

What is Internet Protocol?

The Internet Protocol (IP) is one of the determining elements that define the Internet. The Internet Protocol is a protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork using the Internet Protocol Suite. IP is the primary protocol in the Internet Layer of the Internet Protocol Suite and has the task of delivering distinguished protocol datagrams (packets) from the source host to the destination host solely based on their addresses. For this purpose the Internet Protocol defines addressing methods and structures for datagram encapsulation. The Internet Protocol specifies that each communication device on a network should have a unique address to communicate globally with other devices on the Network. This unique address is known as IP address.

IP Address

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical label that is assigned to devices participating in an ICT network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes. The IP address performs 3 main functions of communicating, “Who”, “Where” and “How” on the packet network.

Allotment of IP Addresses

Various organizations control the allocation of these IP addresses. The apex body in the world for Internet Standards is Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF). It allocated these IP addresses to Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). IANA is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation and further allocates these addresses to the Regional Internet Registries (RIR), which further allocates them to Internet service providers (ISPs), also sometimes referred to as an Internet access provider (IAP), and other organizations. In case of India, the addresses are allocated by APNIC, the RIR that allocates IP and AS numbers in the Asia Pacific region

IPv4
The first major version of addressing structure, now referred to as Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) is still the dominant protocol of the Internet. It is perceived that IPv4 is very robust and has been around for quite sometime, maybe around 25 years now but it has many limitations too. It has a limited addressing space of only 32 bits and the free pool of IPv4 addresses will be exhausted very soon. The IANA pool is likely to exhaust by October-2011. As far as India is concerned, the addresses are allocated by APNIC and currently we have approximately 18.5 million unique IPv4 addresses. It is estimated that within a year’s time about 60 million new addresses will be needed for various broadband and e-governance initiatives.

IPv6

IPv6 is the next generation Internet Protocol with improvement over the initial version of IPv4. It is a scalable Internet technology with a potential to help the Internet reach 1.1 billion people of India. The role of IPv6 is not limited to Internet access alone but it is important in Defence, e-Governance and other crucial government projects. IP security in IPv6 provides end-to-end security implying that data is secured from the originating workstation through various routers of the Internet to the destined workstation. IPv6 has 128 bits as compared to the limited addressing space of only 32 bits in IPv4. The new Internet protocol will give practically unlimited addresses besides a host of new and advanced features for running the future communication networks.

The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 in the country is of critical concern in view of the changing ICT scenario in the country. The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is not simply a protocol upgrade. It involves hardware changes also in addition to software. Moreover, it cannot be done overnight. It needs time; therefore both IPv4 and IPv6 will co-exist for many more years to come. 

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