Why was ipv6 conceived

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We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. IPv6 will eventually replace IPv4, which was conceived during the early days of the internet. It only allows just over four billion unique IP addresses - the sequences of numbers used to identify a device. Each internet-enabled device - such as a computer, tablet or smartphone - needs its own IP address in order to connect to the internet.

However, due to the shortage of IP addresses, many devices - such as multiple computers in the one home - have to share addresses. Networking giant Cisco predicts that by , Workarounds are in common use to share and reuse addresses, making this a problem that most users can continue to ignore for now. On the other hand, it already forces network engineers to work under difficult constraints and justify each request for a new address.

As every new mobile device service is now an ISP too, the problem is only accelerating. IPv6 solves this issue by starting out with a much larger block of addresses. Famously, the address space of 2 is large enough to assign almost 5 x 10 28 , or 50 billion billion billion, addresses to every living human.

The protocol also includes built-in features for configuration and encryption that have traditionally been performed by other software running on top of the IP network layer, and support for extremely large frame sizes for future scalability. The transition to IPv6 presents some privacy concerns that users should be aware of. As first conceived, a portion of an IPv6 address would be generated from a device's MAC address, making it possible for every remote machine a user communicates with to calculate the unique hardware identity of the user's machine.

That allows sites and services anywhere in the world to recognize and track the user's device forever. The sparse address space and decreased need to pool IP addresses with Network Address Translation also make it easier to uniquely identify and track a user. This 7-day long IPv6 experiment started out as a Brazilian initiative, but it was open to everyone to participate.

The goal of this event was similar to World IPv6 Day in that it was an experiment to see if this event would drive an increase in the amount of IPv6 traffic on the global Internet. This event also helped measure the IPv6 brokenness in a controlled way over a prolonged timeframe where the effects of IPv6 could be carefully studied.

This event was open to ISPs, content providers, enterprises, and techies to participate. This event ends today and it appears that it had similar results to World IPv6 Day. No significant problems were encountered and many organizations learned a lot about IPv6 through the process of preparing for and participating in IPv6 Week. You can track their Tweets about the event by looking for ipv6week and semanaIPv6. However, it also includes service providers who are deploying dual-protocol Internet connectivity to their customers and equipment manufacturers who make IPv6-capable network equipment.

Internet service providers have been hesitant to join the World IPv6 Launch movement because there are some requirements for them to meet. Therefore, some providers are hesitant to state their intention to participate because they feel they may not be ready by June. There are also network equipment manufacturers that are joining World IPv6 Launch.