Notes for Lecture-13,14

MCA 206: Advanced Computer Networks

1. Why IPv6?

1.1 IPv4 Address Exhaustion

Though the 32-bit address space of IPv4 supports about 4 billion IP devices, the IPv4
addressing scheme is not optimal because of recent exponential growth of the Internet. Many
regions undergoing substantial growth in IP address utilization such as Asia and Europe. Current
allocation trends predict exhaustion of IPv4 space by 2008. So, the solution to this problem is to
switch over some scheme that could overcome this exponential growth by expanding size of IP
addresses.

1.2 Alternate Solutions

1.2.1 Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR)

CIDR is an effective method to stem the tide of IP address allocation as well as routing
table overflow. It eliminates the concept of class A, B, and C networks and replaces this with a
generalized "IP prefix". CIDR can be used to perform route aggregation in which a single route
can cover the address space of several "old-style" network numbers and thus replace a lot of old
routes. This lessens the local administrative burden of updating external routing, saves routing
table space in all backbone routers and reduces route flapping (rapid changes in routes), and thus
CPU load, in all backbone routers. CIDR allowed delegation of pieces of what used to be called
"network numbers" to customers, and therefore make it possible to utilize the available address
space more efficiently. The major benefit of CIDR is to allow for continuous, uninterrupted
growth of the Internet.

1.2.2 Network Address Translation (NAT)

Network Address Translation (NAT) is a method of connecting multiple computers to the

Internet (or any other IP network) using one IP address. This allows home users and small
businesses to connect their network to the Internet cheaply and efficiently. NAT is necessary
when the number of IP addresses assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider is less than
the total number of computers that you wish to provide Internet access for.
Advantage of Using NAT:

 Use of a single registered IP address for an entire network

 Independence of ISP IP addresses
 Transparent to end systems in some cases (increased security)
 Delays need for IPv4 replacement
 Mask the true internal IP addresses of the internal network.

Disadvantages of NAT:

 Breaks end-to-end model (the private IP space might already be in use)

 Enables end-to-end address conflicts (encourages poor address management)
 Increases local support burden and complexity
 Certain applications do not work properly in conjunction
 Applications needing encryption and key exchange might be problematic
 Increases the probability of misaddressing
 It might require more work if assigning registered IPs to private IPs
 Possible performance degradation if you get close to the limit of about 25,000
connections
 Obscures the ability to manage from the public side of the NAT box.

Solving IPv4 Address Exhaustion

The problem can be solved in two ways:

1) Extending NAT Architecture

- IP Next Layer (IPNL)
- Preserves characteristics of IPv4
2) Transition to IPv6
- Much bigger address space

2. IP Next Layer (IPNL) Overview

The major attributes of IPNL are as follows:

 It is a NAT-extended architecture, which means that it maximizes reuse of the existing
IPv4 infrastructure, primarily by adding a new layer above IPv4 that is routed by NAT
boxes.
 It utilizes Fully Qualified Domain Names (FQDNs) as an end-to-end host identifier in
packets.
 It extends the IP address space such that the globally unique IP address space forms the
high order part of the IPNL address, and the private IP address space forms its low order
part.
 It completely isolates site addressing from global addressing.

Features:

 All hosts have long-lived, globally routable addresses that serve to also identify the host.
  Routers are stateless.
 A network address prefix is assigned independently of where the network attaches to the
Internet.
 Packets cannot be easily hijacked by rogue or misconfigured hosts that are not on the
physical path of the packets.

Implementation:

 Changes to end-hosts and NAT-boxes

 IPNL layer in between IPv4 and transport
 No changes to routers or DNS

3. IPv6

IPv6 is the "next generation" protocol designed by the IETF (The Internet Engineering
Task Force) to replace the current version Internet Protocol, IPv4.IPv6 fixes a number of
problems in IPv4, such as the limited number of available IPv4 addresses. It also adds many
improvements to IPv4 in areas such as routing and network auto configuration. IPv6 is expected
to gradually replace IPv4, with the two coexisting for a number of years during a transition
period.

3.1 Addressing

IPv6 addresses are 128-bits long and are identifiers for individual interfaces and sets of
interfaces. Since each interface belongs to a single node, any of that node's interfaces' unicast
addresses can be used as an identifier for the node. A single interface may be assigned multiple
IPv6 addresses of any type. There are 3 types of addresses: unicast, anycast and
multicast. Approximately 15% of the address space is initially allocated to the reserved
addresses such as NSAP (Network Access Service Point) addresses,IPX (Internetworking
Packet Exchange) addresses, etc. The remaining 85% is reserved for future use.

1. Unicast: An identifier for a single interface. A packet sent to a unicast address is

delivered to the interface identified by that address.
2. Anycast: An identifier for a set of interfaces (typically belonging to different nodes). A
packet sent to an anycast address is delivered to one of the interfaces identified by that
address (the "nearest" one, according to the routing protocols' measure of distance).
3. Multicast: An identifier for a set of interfaces (typically belonging to different nodes). A
packet sent to a multicast address is delivered to all interfaces identified by that address.

There are no broadcast addresses in IPv6, their function being superseded by multicast addresses.

3.2 Features of IPv6

Address size : 32 bits is increased to 128 bits.

Header Format
VERS
identifies protocol as version 6
PRIORITY
Identifies Priority characteristics.
PAYLOAD LENGTH
Specifies only the size of the data being carried, it
does not include the header.
HOP LIMIT
Corresponds to IP's TIME TO LIVE, datagram is
discarded if HOP LIMIT counts down to zero.
FLOW LABEL
Divided into two parts, one used to define a specific
path, the other to specify a traffic class. Routers use
the value in the FLOW LABEL field to route the
datagram.
NEXT HEADER
Used to specify the type of information that follows
the current header.
Extension Headers
Datagram consists of IPv6 header, followed by >= 0 extension headers, followed by data
for extensibility.
Audio and Video
Allows the network to establish a high quality path for certain types of data.
Extensible Protocol
IPv6 does not specify all possible protocol features. A scheme is implemented allowing a
sender to add additional information to a datagram.

Finally, lets look at the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 Solutions: