2 IPv4 address space crisis: The numbering scheme used for IPv4 address is a 32-bit (4

byte) number which can handle a large number of addresses.

Today, the World Wide Web and the Internet are quickly
becoming a ubiquitous part of modern life. The Internet
operates using the Internet Protocol (IP) as the base. This
protocol has worked well for a number of years. IPv4 was
deployed when exceeding the theoretical maximum number
of four billion nodes was not a possibility. However, IP
version 4 (IPv4) is showing its age as unexpected growth
problems have appeared.
2.1 Nature and scale of the IPv4 address crisis:
The following Figure 2.1a illustrates the place of the internet
protocol in the protocol hierarchy:
+------+ +-----+ +-----+ +-----+
|Telnet| | FTP | |Voice| ... | | also known as Node address. The network address can
+------+ +-----+ +-----+
| | |
+-----+
|
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+
| TCP | | RTP | ... | |
+-----+ +-----+ +-----+
| |
+-------------------------------+
| identifies, each machine on a network. This part of the
| Internet Protocol | address is unique and it identifies a particular machine, as
+-------------------------------+
| opposed to a network, which is a group, as in [4].
+---------------------------+
| Local Network Protocol |
+---------------------------+
Figure 2.1a: Protocol relationship
Internet Protocol version 4 ( IPv4 ) is the fourth iteration of a
data-oriented protocol used for communicating data across a
TCP/IP internet and it is a widely deployed protocol. IPv4 is
the dominant Network Layer Protocol on the Internet, as in
[6].
Table 2.1: Internet Protocol version 4 Header
32 bits
Its limit the address space to 4,294,967,296 or approximate
4.3 billion possible unique addresses.[ a 32 bit address space
with two possible values for each portion- either 0 or 1- gives
us 2³² or 4294967296 ].But it can’t possible to use all these
unique values for IP addressing. Many of them are reserved
for special purposes such as private networks (~18 million
addresses) or multicast addresses (~1 million addresses). And
if we count every address were unique, all routers in the
internet would need to store the address of each and every
machine on the Internet. This would make efficient data
transfer impossible, even if only a fraction of the possible
addresses were used, as in [4].
The IP address is divided into two parts. One part is called
Network address. Others one is Host address. Host address is
uniquely identify each network. Every machine on the same
network shares that network address as part of its IP address.
On the other hand, host address is assigned to, and uniquely
Classes of networks based on network sized are used to
subdividing an IP address into a network and host address.
There are Three classes of networks classes in the Ipv4 which
are use to ensure efficient routing. These are Class A
network, Class B network and Class C network. For Class A
networks, the RFCs define the first bits of first octet must
always be off, or 0. In a Class B network, first bit of the first
byte must always be turned on, but the second bit always be
turned off. On the other hand, In a Class C networks, the first
2 bits of the first octet are always turned on but the third bit
must be off. The address schemes define the differences
between of three classes address which I am going to discuss
in the next followed by a discussion of Class D and Class E
address. [4]. Table 2.2 illustrate the summery of three classes
of network.

Table 2.2: Summary of the Three classes of networks

Ver IHL Type of Total Length
sio
n Service
Identification Fl Fragment Offset 8 Bits 8 Bits 8 Bits 8 Bits
a
Time to Live Protocol g Header Checksum Class A Network Host Host Host

s
Source Address Class B Network Network Host Host
Destination Address Class C Network Network Network Host
Options (0 or more) Padding
Class D Multicast
User Data (i.e. TCP or UDP data unit)
Class E Research
Class A- Class A network address are one (1) byte long,
along with a first bit reservation of that byte. Remaining 7
bits are available for manipulation (addressing). So, the
maximum number of or 128 networks can be created by
using Class A address. As each Class A has 3 bytes for host
address, with that or 16,777,216 unique combinations are
possible for the host. So, the rank of Class A network has
been created for the small number of network possessing a
very large number of hosts, [4].Class A network is defined in
the first octet between 0 and 127 which is fixed for this class.
Class B- Class B network address are two bytes long. First
two (2) bytes are assigned to the network address and the
remaining two bytes are used for host addresses, [4].Class B
network address range is configured from 128 to 191.As
Class B start with the binary digit, 1 then 0, this leaves 14 bit
position to manipulate, therefore 16,384 unique Class B
network address can be assigned, [4]. And remaining 2 bytes
with or 65,534 possible host address can be created as it
allows 16 bits for host address.
Class C- The first three bytes of a Class A network are used
for network address and only one (1) byte is remaining for
host address. Thus, Class C network is reserved for the
numerous networks with a small number of nodes, [4]. There
are or 2,097,152, possible Class C networks as the first
three bit of first octet’s positions are always fixed with binary
110. Each unique Class C has or 256, minus the two
reserved patterns of all 0s or all 1s, leads to a total 254 for the
host id. The range for a Class C networks starts at 192 and
goes to 223.
Class D and Class E addresses are used in special purpose
where Class D, address range in between 224 and 239, is
used for multicast address. On the other hand, Class E, range
from 240 to 255, is used for the scientific research purposes.
Table 2.3: Reserved IP Address Space
Address Class Reserved Address space Number of
IP’s
Class A 10.0.0.0 – 10.255.255.255 16,777,215
Class B 172.16.0.0 – 172.31.255.255 1,048,576
Class C 192.168.0.0 – 192.168.255.255 65,535
Of the 4+ billion addresses allowed in IPv4, three ranges of
address are reserved for private networking use. These
addresses can be used on a private network. These ranges are
not routable outside of private network and private machines
cannot directly communicate with public networks. The
reserved private address is listed above Table 2.3.
The original IP addressing using Classful addresses described
above has some drawbacks. If we consider our Liverpool
JMU that has a Class B network address. By using the
original addressing scheme, it’s not possible to manage all
64000 hosts. Moreover, a typical campus must have more
than one local network, requiring the use ofhaving more than
one local network, requiring the use of multiple network
address. Subnet addressing is introduced to solve that
problem which adds another hierarchical level called
‘Subnet’ as shown in the figure 2b, as in [11]. In the subnet
addressing scheme, network address is fixed as it was before
but the host address will be used as the Subnet ID. By using
this address scheme, network administrator is free to choose
to any combination of lengths according the requirements for
the Subnet and Host ID fields. Some of the benefits of this
address scheme includes reduce network traffic, optimized
network performance, simplified management and facilitated
spanning of large geographical distances, as in [4].
Current implementation of IPv4 has lots of problems. From
the above discussion, it is found that Class-based addresses
are wasteful and the structure of IPv4 address has divided
into Class A, B and C networks. In classful address scheme,
when a large organization gets IP address of Class B for it’s
5000 hosts, which mean over 60000 addresses will be unused
as class B has a range of 65536 for the host. This problem is
more serious in Class A address scheme as it can support
more than 16 million hosts under a network. So, it is clear
that under classful address, lots of addresses are wasted.
Class A and B addresses make up 75 percent of the IPv4
address space. However, a relative handful of organizations,
fewer than 17,000, can be assigned a Class A or B network
number. Class C network addresses are far more numerous
than Class A and B addresses, although they account for only
IP Addre s s Allocatios
13%
13% 1
2
49% 3
4
25%
 Figure 2.1b: IP address Allocations
12.5 percent of the possible 4 billion, or 232, IP hosts, as
illustrated in Figure 2.1b.
Unfortunately, Class C addresses are limited to 254 hosts,
which will not meet the needs of larger organizations that
cannot acquire a Class A or B address. Even if there were
more Class A, B, and C addresses, too many network
addresses would cause Internet routers to grind to a halt
under the weight of enormous routing tables. Ultimately, the
classful system of IP addressing, even with subnetting, could
not scale to effectively handle global demand for Internet
connectivity. Many other IP-enable devices like mobile
phones, PDA and laptop are likely to expand heavily in short
future. So the demand of IP address space is rising rapidly
and in future IP address space could well exceed 10 billion
by 2010-2015 as the growing rate is 200%. As we need a
large address space to handle this situation, we must replace
IPv4 soon.
2.2 Measures to mitigate IPv4 crisis:
Some things that can be done to mitigate the IPv4 address
exhaustion are:
2.2.1 Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)
2.2.2 Network Address Translation (NAT)
2.2.3 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP)
2.2.4 Use of Private Network
2.2.5 Replace with IPv6
2.2.1 Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR): CIDR use to
reduce the size routing table and make more IP addresses
available within the organization. The original Internet
Protocol defines IP address in Three major classes of address
structure, Classes A through C. Each of these classes
allocates one portion of the 32-bit Internet address format to a
network address and the remaining portion to the specific
host machines within the network specified by the address.
One of the most commonly used classes is Class B, which
allocates space for up to 65,533 host addresses. A company
who needed more than 254 host machines but far fewer than
the 65,533 host addresses possible would essentially be
"wasting" most of the block of addresses allocated. For this
reason, the Internet was, until the arrival of CIDR, running
out of address space much more quickly than necessary.
CIDR effectively solved the problem by providing a new and
more flexible way to specify network addresses in routers.
Using CIDR, each IP address has a network prefix that
identifies either an aggregation of network gateways or an
individual gateway. The length of the network prefix is also
specified as part of the IP address and varies depending on
the number of bits that are needed (rather than any arbitrary
class assignment structure). A destination IP address or route
that describes many possible destinations has a shorter prefix
and is said to be less specific. A longer prefix describes a
destination gateway more specifically. Routers are required
to use the most specific or longest network prefix in the
routing table when forwarding packets.
With CIDR, a single IP address can be used to designate
many unique IP addresses. A CIDR IP address looks like a
normal IP address except that it ends with a slash followed by
a number. CIDR network address looks like this:
192.30.250.00/18
The "192.30.250.00" is the network address itself and the
"18" says that the first 18 bits are the network part of the
address, leaving the last 14 bits for specific host addresses.
CIDR lets one routing table entry represent an aggregation of
networks that exist in the forward path that don't need to be
specified on that particular gateway, much as the public
telephone system uses area codes to channel calls toward a
certain part of the network. This aggregation of networks in a
single address is sometimes referred to as supernetting.[12]
2.2.2 Network Address Translation (NAT): While
CIDR recognizes that the classification of IP in A, B and C is
wasteful, Network Address Translation (NAT) tries to
actually make more space above and beyond the limits of 2 32
addresses. NAT uses private IP addresses to translate inside
address to a global outside address. The main purpose using
NAT is to conserve Internet global address space. NAT
operates on a router to connect two networks together and
translate private address within internal network, into public
address, [4].
When a client on the internal network contacts a machine on
the Internet, it sends out IP packets destined for that machine.
These packets contain all the addressing information
necessary to get them to their destination. NAT is concerned
with these pieces of information:
 Source IP address (for example, 192.168.1.35)
 Source TCP or UDP port (for example, 2132)
When the packets pass through the NAT gateway they will be
modified so that they appear to be coming from the NAT
gateway itself. The NAT gateway will record the changes it
makes in its state table so that it can reverse the changes on
return packets and ensure that return packets are passed
through the firewall and are not blocked. For example, the
following changes might be made:
 Source IP: replaced with the external address of the
gateway (for example, 24.5.0.5)
 Source port: replaced with a randomly chosen,
unused port on the gateway (for example, 53136)
Neither the internal machine nor the Internet host is aware of
these translation steps. To the internal machine, the NAT
system is simply an Internet gateway. To the Internet host,
the packets appear to come directly from the NAT system; it
is completely unaware that the internal workstation even
exists. When the Internet host replies to the internal
machine's packets, they will be addressed to the NAT
gateway's external IP (24.5.0.5) at the translation port
(53136). The NAT gateway will then search the state table to
determine if the reply packets match an already established
connection. A unique match will be found based on the
IP/port combination which tells PF the packets belong to a
connection initiated by the internal machine 192.168.1.35. PF
will then make the opposite changes it made to the outgoing
packets and forward the reply packets on to the internal
machine.
2.2.3 Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP):
Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP) is a standard
protocol that allows a server to dynamically distribute IP
addressing. By using DHCP, we don’t need to allocate a
fixed IP address for a user .User will get a temporary IP
address from DHCP server as soon as he log into the network
until he log out. Users especially mobile users receive much
of the benefit of DHCP, which allows them to travel
anywhere on the intranetwork and automatically receive IP
addresses when they reconnect to the network. So it increases
the address utilization. Along with this, DHCP provides safe
and reliable configuration and decrease time spent
configuring and reconfiguring computers on a network.
2.2.4 Use of Private Network: It is not possible to connect
two private networks (e.g., two branch offices) via the public
Internet. We can do this by using a virtual private network
(VPN). A virtual private network (VPN) is a private
communications network often used within a company, or by
several companies or organizations, to communicate
confidentially over a publicly accessible network, as in [6].
VPN works by inserting an IP packet (encapsulated packet)
directly into the data field of another IP packet (encapsulating
packet) and using a publicly routable address in the
encapsulating packet. Once the VPN packet is routed across
the public network and reaches the endpoint, the encapsulated
packet is extracted and then transmitted on the private
Version Traffic Class Flow Level
Payload Length Next Hope
Header Limit
Source Address
Destination Address
Figure 2.1d: IPv6 Header
network just as if the two private networks were directly
connected.[6]
2.2.5 Replace with IPv6: The problem with IPv4 in
connection with address allocation put together to workgroup
to design a new protocol named IPv6. Stepping up from 32
bits to 128 bits addresses, it is estimated that there will be
enough IPv6 addresses to support a density of more than
10,000 IP address per square meter which ought to be enough
for all on the planet and beyond. In the above, figure 2.1d
illustrates the IPv6 Header.
2.3 Assessment of IPv4 exhaustion date:
Ipv4 is limited with its address space. Various estimates have
been made about when the all space of Ipv4 will used up.
Christian Huitema provides an estimate that the 32-bit
maximum address space will be exhausted between the years
of 2010-2015,as in [7]
As of September 2005, Tony Hain (Cisco) estimated the
unallocated IANA pool to run out by 2008. Geoff Huston
(APNIC) then estimated in November 2005 this to happen in
early 2012. Both have since then been updating their
projections using incoming data on new allocations, as in
[16].
And, according this coursework, we have seen that the
current growing rate of internet population was 200% in the
last five years from 2000-2005, as in [22]. If we take this into
our count, the Ipv4 will run out of its address space in
between 2010 to 2015.
3. IPv6 Deployment:
The internet operates using the Internet Protocol (IP) as the
base. As IPv4 is showing its age as unexpected growth
problem has appeared, we need to think about alternative
solution to overcome that. Deployment of IPv6 is the most
appropriate and only solution which will solve the current
problem of IPv4 address space crisis.

Figure3.1a: The general model
3.1 IPv6 Deployment Strategies:
Figure 3.1a shows the general model which describes the
transition period. We consider a domain running mostly IPv6
but where some IPv4 equipments or applications still remain
used. This domain is connected to an IPv6-only provider.
Somewhere on the network a third party provider (here we
have two providers) is able to link the IPv4 and IPv6 domains
through transition systems. We solve the case where IPv6
equipment must talk with equipment in IPv4-only domains
and vice versa. We suppose that no change can be made to
the IPv4-only equipment and applications. The transition
mechanism must be as transparent as possible to keep the
advantages of the IPv6 auto configation. We suppose that a
DNS is running on each domain. Queries to the DNS are
done in the respective native protocol. We now describe the
dual stack interconnection mechanisms, as in [2]
3.1.1 The dual stack: A hybrid stack host, also known as a
dual stack host, implements both IPv4 and IPv6—usually in
Applications
TCP/UDP
V4 Stack V6 Stack
V4 V6
Figure 3.1b: The dual Stack Concept
a single stack in which most of the code is shared by the two
protocols. The host “speaks” IPv4 with IPv4 peers, and IPv6
with IPv6 peers. When both options are available, the host
will usually choose the IPv6 path, which
It also defines a transition mechanism based on a dual stack
in each host [FTGURE 3.1b]. A host will either send packets
in IPv4 or IPv6 depending on the protocol used by the
destination. It also defines IPv4 address formats that can be
integrated in IPv6 ones (also called IPv4 mapped addresses).
The IPv4 mapped addresses allow applications compiled with
IPv6 system calls to talk with IPv4 only applications. This
method is currently used in the early phase of the transition.
The main drawbacks are the following. An IPv4 address must
be allocated to each equipment. If we map this onto our
transition model previously described, it means that the IPv6
domain is included in the IPv4 world. Routers must be
configured for the two protocols and Pv4 applications must
be slightly modified and recompiled to be adapted to the IPv6
API, as in [2]
3.1.2 IPv6 tunneling: Tunneling provides a convenient way
for an IPv6 island to connect to other IPv6 islands across an
ocean of IPv4 networks, as in [15]. Figure 3.1c shows how an
IPv6 packet can be encapsulated within the payload of an
IPv4 packet. Tunneling provides a way to use an existing
IPv4 routing infrastructure to carry IPv6 traffic. The key to a
successful IPv6 transition is compatibility with the existing
installed base of IPv4 hosts and routers. Maintaining
compatibility with IPv4 while deploying IPv6 streamlines the
task of transitioning the Internet to IPv6. While the IPv6
infrastructure is being deployed, the existing IPv4 routing
infrastructure can remain functional, and can be used to carry
IPv6 traffic.
IPv6 or IPv4 hosts and routers can tunnel IPv6 datagrams
over regions of IPv4 routing topology by encapsulating them
within IPv4 packets. In the below, I have described how
Tunneling can be used in a variety of ways:
 Router-to-Router: IPv6 or IPv4 routers
interconnected by an IPv4 infrastructure can tunnel
IPv6 packets between themselves. In this case, the
tunnel spans one segment of the end-to-end path that
the IPv6 packet takes.
IPv4 IPv6 TCP/UDP PayLoad
 Figure 3.1c: IPv6 in IPv4 Tunnel service provided by Ipv4. IPv6 not only change the IPv4
functions that do not work well but also support new
emerging application such as real-time video conferencing,
 Host-to-Router: IPv6 or IPv4 hosts can tunnel IPv6 as in [11]
packets to an intermediary IPv6 or IPv4 router that
is reachable through an IPv4 infrastructure. This
type of tunnel spans the first segment of the packet's
end-to-end path.

 Host-to-Host: IPv6 or IPv4 hosts that are

interconnected by an IPv4 infrastructure can tunnel
IPv6 packets between themselves. In this case, the
tunnel spans the entire end-to-end path that the
packet takes.

 Router-to-Host: IPv6/IPv4 routers can tunnel IPv6

packets to their final destination IPv6 or IPv4 host.
This tunnel spans only the last segment of the end-
to-end path.

Tunneling techniques are usually classified according to the

mechanism by which the encapsulating node determines the
address of the node at the end of the tunnel. In router-to-
router or host-to-router methods, the IPv6 packet is being
tunneled to a router. In host-to-host or router-to-host
methods, the IPv6 packet is tunneled all the way to its final
destination, as in [15].

The entry node of the tunnel (the encapsulating node) creates

an encapsulating IPv4 header and transmits the encapsulated
packet. The exit node of the tunnel (the decapsulating node)
receives the encapsulated packet, removes the IPv4 header,
updates the IPv6 header, and processes the received IPv6
packet. However, the encapsulating node needs to maintain
soft state information for each tunnel, such as the maximum
transmission unit (MTU) of the tunnel, to process IPv6
packets forwarded into the tunnel, as in [15].

3.2 Conclusion: For many years, IP version 4 has played a

central role in the internetworking environment. It has proved
flexible enough to work on many different networking
technologies. However, it has become a victim of its own
success-explosive growth. In the early days of the internet,
people using it were typically researchers and scientists
working in academia, high-tech companies, and research
laboratories, mainly for the purpose of exchanging scientific
results through email. In the 1990s the World Wide Web and
personal computers shifted the user of the Internet to general
public. This change has created heavy demands for new IP
address, and the 32 bits of current IP addresses will be
exhausted soon or later, as in [11].

Ipv6 was designed to interoperate with IPv4 since it would

likely take many years to complete the translation from
version 4 to version 6.But IPv6 has retained the most basic