What is IPv4?

What is IPv4?
Internet Protocol version 4 or IPv4 was the most widely used version of the first IP address. This version prioritizes the most feasible data delivery flow, but does not guarantee the quality of data delivery or service.

This means that users may encounter lagging and other problems that may occur due to the current ups and downs of internet traffic loads.

IPv4 is also a connectionless protocol, which means that data packets will still be sent without having to check whether the destination device is ready. The advantage of IPv4 is that this protocol can send packets through alternative routes if the connection is blocked or the router has problems.

This version of IP uses 32-bit addresses, which is the most common format for today’s IP addresses. An IPv4 address consists of four decimal places, separated by three dots, ranging from 0 to 255.

Here’s an IPv4 example:

192.0.2.146

A 32-bit address space can provide approximately 4.3 billion addresses. But, some are kept for private network and not available for public use.

What is IPv6?
Internet Protocol version 6 or IPv6 is the latest version of an IP address, which is also known as Internet Protocol Next Generation (IPng). Its function is similar to Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), which provides a special address for all devices connected to the internet. However, unlike IPv4, IPv6 uses 128-bit addresses.

The 128-bit address space allows about 340 undecillion addresses or 1,028 times more than IPv4.

IPv6 addresses contain numbers and letters, written in eight groups of four-digit hexadecimal numbers, separated by colons.

Here’s an IPv6 example:

2001:db8:3333:4444:CCCC:DDDD:EEEE:FFFF

In addition to having more addresses, IPv6 also has a simpler header than IPv4. The IP header is meta information at the beginning of the IP packet.

The IPv6 header has a new format designed to minimize header overhead for more efficient packet processing.

Then, another difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is, Network Address Translation (NAT) is not required with IPv6 thus restoring end-to-end connectivity at the IP layer.

It also makes services such as Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and Quality of Service (QoS) easier to implement and deploy.