IP also known as Internet Protocol is a unique numerical label that is assigned to each device present on a network. An IP address is used by a device to communicate with each other in a network. With this unique IP address, a device can be tracked and identified. That is why an IP address is also known as an Internet address. Even your device has a dedicated IP address.
Today, in this article, we will see the difference between two different versions of IP addresses, IPv4 and IPv6. If you are curious what is your IP address is, you can check from here.
What is IPv4?
IPv4 is the fourth version of IP established by ARPANET in 1983 for the first time. Currently, it is the highest used IP version. There are currently more than 4 billion IPv4 addresses. IPv4 uses a 32 bit numeric address for devices. An IPv4 address looks like 63.45.54.88 which is unique for each device.
Even though there are 4 billion IPv4 addresses, they can’t fulfill the global requirements of 7.6 billion people where many people have more than 1 device that requires an IP address. Hence IPv6 was deployed to meet the IP demand.
What is IPv6?
IPv6 is the recent upgrade to IPv4. It is the 6th version of the IP address. IPv6 uses a 128 bit alphanumeric address. IPv6 is an ideal protocol for node interaction between devices. An IPv6 address looks like 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:7879. Unlike IPv4, it is separated by a colon.
IPv6 has better speed than IPv4 and is also better suited for mobile networks. It also fixes some security problems in IPv4.
Differences between IPv4 and IPv6
IPv4 | IPv6 | |
Address Configuration | IPv4 has 32 bit numeric address length. | IPv6 has 128 bits of alphanumeric address length. |
Example | 63.45.54.88 | 2001:0db8:0000:0000:0000:ff00:0042:7879 |
Address Separation | In IPv4, binary bits of the address are separated by a dot. | In IPv6, binary bits are separated by a colon. |
Header Field Number | In IPv4, the total number of header fields is 12 | In the IPv6 address protocol, the total header fields are 8. |
Header Field Length | IPv4 addresses have a header field length of 20. | In IPv6, the header field length is 40. |
End to End Connection Integirty | In IPv4, end to end connection integrity can not be achieved. | In the IPv6 address, end to end connection integrity can be achieved. |
Address Configuration | IPv4 has support for Manual and DHCP connections. | IPv6 supports auto and renumbering address configuration. |
Number of addresses | In IPv4, around 4.29×10 raised to 9 addresses can be generated. | 3.4×10 raised to 38 addresses can be generated in the IPv6 protocol. |
Security Functions | In IPv4, the application is responsible for security. IP address does not have to do anything with security. | Whereas in IPv6, IPSEC looks after the security. |
Transmission Scheme | In IPv4, transmission is broadcast. | While in IPv6, it is multicasting providing better network operation. |
Encryption | There is no feature of encryption of data in IPv4. | Encryption is available in IPv6 address. |
Authentication | IPv4 does not provide authentication as well. | IPv6 provides authentication as well. |
Number of octets | There are 4 octets in the IPv4 address. | There are 16 octets in IPv6 address. |
Conclusion
So this was the difference between IPv4 and IPv6. While IPv4 is the most used IP address, IPv6 is the future of IP addresses as it is somewhat better than IPv4 in many aspects. If you don’t understand anything about IP addresses, you can ask us in the comment section. We would be happy to answer.