In the computing world, communication between computers and network devices relies on the binary language of ones and zeros. Traditionally, on Layer 3 of the networking stack, systems communicate using the Internet Protocol (IP), where each device is assigned a unique identifier known as an IP address.
Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4) addresses are represented as 32-bit numbers, allowing for approximately 4 billion addresses. At the time of its creation, this vast address space seemed more than sufficient. However, as the number of devices connected to the internet has increased significantly to include smartphones, tablets, laptops, IoT devices, and many more, the available IPv4 address space has been rapidly depleting.
The shortage of IPv4 addresses has prompted the development and adoption of Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6). IPv6 addresses are represented as 128-bit numbers, enabling a 340 trillion address capacity. This virtually limitless address space is more than enough to accommodate the ever-growing number of connected devices worldwide.
Despite the capabilities of IPv6, its adoption has been relatively slow. As of now, approximately 94% of the internet’s traffic still uses IPv4. Most home and business users are allocated a dynamic or static IPv4 address for their network, and then are placed behind NAT (Network Address Translation). IPv6 does not require NAT, which allows for more optimal routing strategies for network packets, and allows data to travel faster through networks.
The transition from IPv4 to IPv6 has become an essential step to meet the ever-increasing demands of the connected world. While IPv4 is serving the demands of the internet for now, the future consists of an IPv6 driven world, which can support an ever changing number of devices and solve the problem of running out of IPv4 network addresses, and allows each network device to communicate to each other directly via the shortest path without Network Address Translation being required.