IP Address

An IP address represents an Internet Protocol address. An IP address is an unique string of numbers that
identifies devices on the Internet or local network.

IP addresses are not random. They are mathematically produced and allocated by the Internet Assigned
Numbers Authority (IANA), a division of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
(ICANN).

Every system have a public as well as private IP address. Public IP address can be Static as well as a
Dynamic IP address. There are two versions of IP that are currently in use IP version 4 (IPv4) and IP
version 6 (IPv6).

Introduction:

IPv4: It stands for Internet Protocol version four. In 1981 Defense Advanced Research Projects
Agency(DARPA) developed IPv4 but it was first deployed in 1982 for production on SATNET and on the
ARPANET in January 1983.

IPv6: It stands for Internet Protocol version Six and it is based on IPv4. It was introduced in 1982 by the
Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

Address size

IPv4 is a 32-bit address, while IPv6 is a 128-bit hexadecimal address.

Format

IPv4 addresses are usually represented in dot-decimal notation, consisting of four decimal numbers,
each ranging from 0 to 255, separated by dots(.) . An IPv6 address is represented as eight groups of four
hexadecimal digits seprated by colon (:) each range from 0 to f.

Header size

In IPv4, the header size can range from 20 to 60 bytes depending on the options field. In IPv6, the header
size is fixed at 40 bytes.

Number of Address

IPv4 can generate 4.29×109 address space. The address space of IPv6 is quite large it can produce
3.4×1038 address space

Network management protocol

IPv4 Supports Manual and DHCP address configuration. Where as IPv6 supports Auto and renumbering
address configuration.

Data Integrity
In IPv4 end to end, connection integrity is Unachievable. In IPv6 end-to-end, connection integrity is
Achievable

Encryption

In IPv4 Encryption and Authentication facility is not provided. In IPv6 not olny Encryption but also
Authentication are provided.

Speed

IPv6 is faster than IPv4 in network devices because it lacks network-address translation (NAT).