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Ipv4 Vs. Ipv4 Ipv6

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IPv4 vs. IPv6

IPv4 and IPv6 are communication protocols (rules) which allow remote computers, servers, and other IT related devices to communicate. Both owe their existence to the massive growth of the internet. There was no need for IP-versions in 1969 when the internet began as ARPANET, a network set up by the United States Defense Advance Research Project. With only a few dozen computers on the net, each identified by a host name, they were able identify, contact and communicate with each other using host name only. When ARPANET went public and became what we know as the internet today, using host names only to identify devices became untenable. What is IPv4 and IPv6? The “IP” stands for Internet Protocol. Internet Protocol is the …show more content…

That ignorance was short lived as the internet, and the number of devices connected to it grew exponentially. Every device which connects to the internet requires an IP address. Computers, printers, tablets, and phones must each have a unique address or they will not be able to communicate via the net. The magnitude of internet growth revealed there was a need for more addresses by the late 1980s. Pv4 addresses are separated into 5 classes which are identified by the first-Octet value as follows (Odom, p.391):
Class A 1-126 Unicast addresses (0 & 127 reserved)
Class B 128 – 191 Unicast addresses
Class C 192 – 223 Unicast addresses
Class D 224 – 239 Multicast addresses – not used for unicast
Class E 240 – 255 Experimental – not used for unicast The classes were divided into “network groups” which determined how many actual IPv4 addresses were in each group. The chart below best illustrates the network/IPv4 address breakdown (Odom, p. 394):
RANGE CLASS NETWORKS ADDRESSES
0 Reserved
1 – 126 A 126 16,000,000 each
127 Reserved
128 – 191 B 16,000 65,000 each
192 – 223 C 2,000,000 254 each
224 – 239 D Multicast Multicast
240 – 255 E Experimental Experimental

With a limited numbers of IP addresses available, the original practice of assigning a whole network from a class, for example a Class B network from the “129” range with 65,000 addresses, to a company which needed only 500 IP addresses, wasted IP addresses.

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