Internet Protocol (IP) is a set of requirements for logically addressing and routing data across networks. IP addresses currently exist in two versions namely IPv4 and IPv6.
The size of IPv4 address is 32 bits whereas the size of an IPv6 address is 128 bits, which is four times larger. There are 232 (4,294,967,296) IPv4 addresses available. Moreover, IPv4 address is expressed in four groups of decimal numbers, such as 192.168.47.18, and each set of numbers represents a binary octet. In the binary system, the preceding number can be presented as – 11000000.10101000.00101111.00010010.
As opposed to IPv4, IPv6 addresses are expressed in hexadecimal addresses. An IPv6 address may look, for instance, looks like – 2003:DB8:0:2F4B:6AA:FF:FE27:5C5A. IPv6 addressing has the following advantage over the traditional IPv4 IP addressing scheme:
- Large address space. IPv6 uses a 128-bit address space, which allows for 3.4×10^38 or
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 possible addresses.
- Built-in security – IPsec based.
- Prioritized delivery
- Quality of service (QoS)