IPv4 and IPv6 Graphical Illustration
IPV4:
Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is the widely used protocol for data communication over different kind of networks. It is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol (IP). It is a connectionless protocol used in packet-switched layer networks, such as Ethernet. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses. IPv4 has five classes for Ethernet communication.
There are five types of classes A, B, C, D and E. Classes A, B and C have a different bit length for addressing the network host. Class D addresses are reserved for multicasting, while class E addresses are reserved for future use. Class A has subnet mask 255.0.0.0 or /8, B has subnet mask 255.255.0.0 or /16 and class C has subnet mask 255.255.255.0 or /24. For example, with a /16 subnet mask, the network 192.168.0.0 may use the address range of 192.168.0.0 to 192.168.255.255. IPv4 can be assigned to a maximum of 232 end users.
IPv6:
Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is the most recent version of the Internet Protocol (IP), the communications protocol that provides an identification and location system for computers on networks and routes traffic across the Internet. IPv6 is intended to replace IPv4. IPv4 has only 4.3 billion addresses but IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses and is capable of 340 undecillion addresses.
Different between IPv4 and IPv6
| IPv4 | IPv6 |
| IPv4 address is 32-bit length | IPv6 addresses are 128-bit length |
| It’s represented in decimal | It’s represented in hexadecimal |
| Check sum is available in IPv4 | No check sum in IPv6 |
| Address resolution protocol available to map IPv4 address to MAC address. | Address resolution protocol is replaced Neighbour Discovery Protocol. |
| Broadcast message are available | Broadcast message are not available |
| IPv4 requires manual or dynamic configure. | Auto-configuration of address is available. |
| No packet flow identification | Packet flow identification is available |