Differences Between IPv4 and IPv6 Page 1 of 3

Differences Between IPv4 and IPv6

In the late 1970s, when the IPv4 address space was designed, it was unimaginable that it
could be exhausted. However, due to changes in technology and an allocation practice that
did not anticipate the recent explosion of Internet hosts, the IPv4 address space became so
consumed that by 1992, it was clear a replacement would be necessary.

With IPv6, it is even harder to conceive that the IPv6 address space will be consumed. To
help put this number in perspective, a 128-bit address space provides
655,570,793,348,866,943,898,599 (6.5´1023) addresses for every square meter of the
Earth’s surface.

It is important to remember that the decision to make the IPv6 address 128 bits in length
was not so that every square meter of the Earth could have 6.5´1023 addresses. Rather, the
relatively large size of the IPv6 address is designed so it can be subdivided into hierarchical
routing domains that reflect the modern-day Internet’s topology. The use of 128 bits allows
for multiple levels of hierarchy and flexibility in designing hierarchical addressing and routing
that is currently lacking on the IPv4-based Internet.

The IPv6 addressing architecture is described in Request for Comments (RFC) 4291.

IPv4 and IPv6 Comparison

The following table highlights the differences between IPv4 and IPv6:

IPv4 IPv6

Source and destination addresses are 32 bits (4 Source and destination addresses are 128 bits (1

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bytes) in length. bytes) in length.

IPsec support is optional. IPsec support is required.

No identification of packet flow for Quality of Packet-flow identification for QoS handling by ro
Service (QoS) handling by routers is present is included in the IPv6 header using the Flow Lab
within the IPv4 header. field.

Fragmentation is done by both routers and the Fragmentation is not done by routers, only by th
sending host. sending host.

Header includes a checksum. Header does not include a checksum.

Header includes options. All optional data is moved to IPv6 extension hea

Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) uses ARP Request frames are replaced with multicast
broadcast ARP Request frames to resolve an Neighbor Solicitation messages.
IPv4 address to a link-layer address.

Internet Group Management Protocol (IGMP) is IGMP is replaced with Multicast Listener Discove
used to manage local subnet group (MLD) messages.
membership.

Internet Control Message Protocol (ICMP) ICMP Router Discovery, which is required, is rep
Router Discovery, which is optional, is used to with ICMPv6 Router Solicitation and Router
determine the IPv4 address of the best default Advertisement messages.
gateway.

Broadcast addresses are used to send traffic to There are no IPv6 broadcast addresses. Instead
all nodes on a subnet. link-local scope all-nodes multicast address is us

Must be configured either manually or through Does not require manual configuration or DHCP.
DHCP.

Uses host address (A) resource records in the Uses host address (AAAA) resource records in D
Domain Name System (DNS) to map host map host names to IPv6 addresses.
names to IPv4 addresses.

Uses pointer (PTR) resource records in the IN- Uses PTR resource records in the IP6.ARPA DNS
ADDR.ARPA DNS domain to map IPv4 domain to map IPv6 addresses to host names.
addresses to host names.

Must support a 576-byte packet size (possibly Must support a 1280-byte packet size (without
fragmented). fragmentation).

IPv6 equivalents to IPv4

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The following table highlights the IPv6 equivalents to IPv4:

IPv4 Address IPv6 Address

Internet address classes Not applicable in IPv6

Multicast addresses (224.0.0.0/4) IPv6 multicast addresses (FF00::/8)

Broadcast addresses Not applicable in IPv6

Unspecified address is 0.0.0.0 Unspecified address is ::

Loopback address is 127.0.0.1 Loopback address is ::1

Public IP addresses Global unicast addresses

Private IP addresses (10.0.0.0/8, Site-local addresses (FEC0::/10)

172.16.0.0/12, and 192.168.0.0/16)

Autoconfigured addresses (169.254.0.0/16) Link-local addresses (FE80::/64)

Text representation: Dotted decimal notation Text representation: Colon hexadecimal format
suppression of leading zeros and zero compressi
IPv4-compatible addresses are expressed in dot
decimal notation

Network bits representation: Subnet mask in Network bits representation: Prefix length notati
dotted decimal notation or prefix length only

DNS name resolution: IPv4 host address (A) DNS name resolution: IPv6 host address (AAAA)
resource record resource record

DNS reverse resolution: IN-ADDR.ARPA domain DNS reverse resolution: IP6.ARPA domain

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IPv6 Implementations Using Microsoft Technologies

For all of the IPv6 implementations from Microsoft, you can use IPv6 without affecting IPv4
communications. Note that IPv6 is a dual stack implementation in Windows XP SP2 and
Windows Server 2003, and a dual layer implementation for Windows Vista and Windows
Server 2008.

Characteristics of the IPv6 protocol

The IPv6 protocol for the Windows Server 2003 Family, Windows XP with SP1, Windows XP
with SP2, and Windows CE .NET:

Is a production-quality implementation.

Can be installed and uninstalled as a separate protocol through the Network

Connections folder.

Uses dual stack architecture. Each protocol has its own Transmission Control Protocol
(TCP) and User Datagram Protocol (UDP) implementation, which means that it uses
more code and more memory, and there is more complexity when you install the two
standards.

The Next Generation TCP/IP stack

The Next Generation TCP/IP stack in Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 uses a dual
layer architecture, in which there is only one TCP and UDP implementation for both IPv4 and
IPv6.

Advantages of Dual Layer

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Both IPv4 and IPv6 share common Transport and Framing layers, which simplifies
maintenance of the IPv6 and IPv4 installations. Both protocols are enabled by default. The
dual layer architecture reduces the number of maintained drivers and software libraries.

With a single TCP implementation, TCP traffic over IPv6 can take advantage of all the
performance features of the Next Generation TCP/IP stack, including performance
enhancements of the IPv4 protocol stack of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. There
also are additional enhancements that are new to the Next Generation TCP/IP stack, such as
Receive Window Auto Tuning and Compound TCP--which can dramatically improve
performance on high-latency/high-delay connections--and better support for TCP traffic in
high-loss environments (such as wireless local area networks).

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