IPv6

IPv6 . Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) (in Spanish : Internet Protocol version 6) is a version of the Internet Protocol (IP), defined in RFC 2460 and designed to replace Internet Protocol version 4 ( IPv4 ) RFC 791 , which it is currently implemented in the vast majority of devices that access the Internet.

Table of Contents

Summary

[ hide ]

1 Introduction
2 Current solution
3 Characteristics of IPv6
4 Types of IP addresses
- 1 Unicast:
- 2 Multicast:
- 3 Anycast:
5 IPv6 addresses
6 IPv6 packets
7 What is an IPv6 tunnel over IPv4?
8 DNS in IPv6
9 IPv6 in Operating Systems
10 Sources

Introduction

Designed by Steve Deering of Xerox PARC and Craig Mudge , IPv6 is set to replace IPv4 , whose limit on the number of allowable network addresses is beginning to restrict the growth of the Internet and its use, especially in China , India , and other countries densely populated Asians. The new standard will improve service globally; for example, it will provide future phone cells and mobile devices with their own permanent addresses.

At the beginning of 2010 , less than 11% of IPs remained unassigned. In the week of the 3 of February of 2011 , the IANA (International Agency Assigned Numbers, for its acronym in English ) delivered the last block of addresses available (33 million) to the organization responsible for assigning IPs in Asia a market that is booming and will soon consume them all.

IPv4 allows 4,294,967,296 (2 ^ 32) different network addresses, an inappropriate number to give an address to every person on the planet, much less to every vehicle, telephone, PDA, and so on. Instead, IPv6 supports 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 (2 ^ 128 or 340 sextillion addresses) – about 6.7 × 10 ^ 17 (670 trillion ) of addresses per square millimeter of the surface of the Earth .

IPv6 begins to gain ground in the market of the federal government of the United States and the Asian carriers of communications. The federal government plans to include IPv6 support for its networks before 2008.

The new go6 portal includes more comprehensive information about IPv6 on the web. It was created by Hexago, a Canadian IPv6 vendor. He has experience in the implementation and application of IPv6. They provide us with access to the latest tools and information on the new version of the Internet Protocol.

Even though IPv6 was designed to offer better security than IPv4, security is still an issue in new installations due to the scarcity of security tools for these protocols. For this we can make use of the current firewalls .

Current solution

The use of IPv6 has been slowed down by Network Address Translation ( NAT ), temporarily alleviating the lack of these network addresses.

This mechanism consists of using an IPv4 address so that an entire network can access the internet. But this solution prevents us from using several applications, since their protocols are not capable of crossing NAT devices , for example P2P, voice over IP ( VoIP ), multi-user games, among others.

IPv6 features

Perhaps the main characteristics of IPv6 are synthesized in the greater space of addressing, security, self-configuration and mobility. But there are also others that are important to mention:

Efficient and hierarchical routing and address infrastructure.
Improved compatibility for Quality of Service ( QoS ) and Class of Service (CoS).
Multicast: sending the same packet to a group of receivers.
Anycast: sending a packet to a receiver within a group.
Mobility: one of the mandatory characteristics of IPv6 is the possibility of connecting and disconnecting our computer from IPv6 networks and, therefore, being able to travel with it without needing another application that allows us that plug / unplug can be done directly.
Integrated Security ( IPsec ): IPv6 includes IPsec , which allows authentication and encryption of the base protocol itself, so that all applications can benefit from it.
Quality of service.

Types of IP addresses

Unicast:

These types of addresses are quite popular. A packet sent to a unicast address should reach the interface identified by that address.

Multicast:

Multicast addresses identify a group of interfaces. A packet destined for a multicast address reaches all the interfaces that are grouped under that address.

Anycast:

Anycast addresses are syntactically indistinguishable from unicast addresses but serve to identify a set of interfaces. A packet destined for an anycast address arrives at the “closest” interface (in terms of “routers” metrics). Anycast addresses can only be used on routers.

IPv6 addresses

The function of the IPv6 address is exactly the same as its predecessor IPv4, but within the IPv6 protocol.

It is made up of 8 segments of 2 bytes each, which add up to a total of 128 bits, the equivalent of about 3.4 × 10 ^ 38 addressable hosts. The advantage over the IPv4 address is obvious in terms of its addressing capabilities.

Its representation is usually hexadecimal and the symbol “:” is used to separate each pair of octets. A block ranges from 0000 to FFFF. Some rules about the representation of IPv6 addresses are:

Leading zeros, as in IPv4, can be ignored.

Example: 2001: 0123: 0004: 00ab: 0cde: 3403: 0001: 0063 -> 2001: 123: 4: ab: cde: 3403: 1: 63.

Contiguous blocks of zeros can be compressed using “::”. This operation can only be done once.
Example: 2001: 0: 0: 0: 0: 0: 0: 4 -> 2001 :: 4.
Invalid example: 2001: 0: 0: 0: 2: 0: 0: 1 -> 2001 :: 2 :: 1 (should be 2001 :: 2: 0: 0: 1 or 2001: 0: 0: 0: 2 :: 1).

IPv6 packets

The header is in the first 40 bytes of the packet, it contains the source and destination addresses with 128 bits each, the 4-bit version, the 8-bit traffic class, 20-bit stream label, 16-bit data field length , next header 8 bits, and hop limit 8 bits.

What is an IPv6 tunnel over IPv4?

It is a transition mechanism that allows machines with IPv6 installed to communicate with each other through an IPv4 network.

The mechanism is to create the IPv6 packets in the normal way and insert them into an IPv4 packet. The reverse process is done on the target machine, which receives an IPv6 packet.

DNS in IPv6

There are two types of DNS records for IPv6. The IETF has declared A6 and CNAME records as records for experimental use. Records of type AAAA are so far the only standards.

The use of type AAAA registers is very simple. The name of the machine is associated with the IPv6 address as follows: MACHINE_NAME AAAA MYIPv6_ADDRESS

In the same way as in IPv4, type A records are used. If you cannot manage your own DNS zone, you can request this configuration from your service provider. Current versions of bind (versions 8.3 and 9) and the dns / djbdns “port” (with the corresponding IPv6 patch) support AAAA type registrations.

The subject of IPv6 is nothing new, this evolution has been discussed for several years, but the process is something that is worth discussing, enriching with news, comments on it and knowing the perspective of users regarding evolution towards IPv6.

IPv6 in Operating Systems

IPv6 is supported by today’s main operating systems: Microsoft Windows 7, Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2003, Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or higher), Windows CE (4.1 or higher),Red Hat Linux (7 or higher), Debian, SUSE Linux (10.x or higher), Fedora, Ubuntu, FreeBSD (4 or higher), HP-UX, Apple MAC OS, Sun Solaris (8 or higher), Tru64 UNIX, Symbian (7 or higher).x or higher), Fedora, Ubuntu, FreeBSD (4 or higher), HP-UX, Apple MAC OS, Sun Solaris (8 or higher), Tru64 UNIX, Symbian (7 or higher).x or higher), Fedora, Ubuntu, FreeBSD (4 or higher), HP-UX, Apple MAC OS, Sun Solaris (8 or higher), Tru64 UNIX, Symbian (7 or higher).Tru64 UNIX, Symbian (7 or higher).Tru64 UNIX, Symbian (7 or higher).

The operating systems of the major network platform manufacturers are IPv6 ready:

Cisco
Juniper
Huawei

The first three operating systems used in mobile phones support IPv6:

Linux
Symbian
Windows Mobile

Development platforms with IPv6 support for Windows:

JAVA SDK
.NET 1.1 or higher
Visual Studio 2003 or higher