1. What are the problems with IPv4 on today's Internet?

Some of the problems are:

• It has a rapidly depleting public address space.
• There are large routing tables for Internet backbone routers.
• Its configuration could be simpler.
• Security at the IP level should be required so that applications can count on
standardized Internet layer security services.
• IPv4 has limited support for QoS delivery.

2. How does IPv6 provide better QoS support?

IPv6 uses a combination of the Traffic Class field (to define a specific type of service)
and the Flow Label field (which identifies that the packet requires special handling, even
when the payload is encrypted).

3. Describe at least three ways in which IPv6 is more efficient than IPv4
• IPv6 addresses are hierarchical and summarizable, leading to smaller routing tables.
• The IPv6 address space removes the need for NATs, making end-to-end
communication faster because no translation is needed.
• The IPv6 header is designed for minimal overhead and optimal processing at
intermediate routers.
• IPv6 Neighbor Discovery (ND) replaces broadcast-based ARP with unicast and
multicast ND messages. Common neighbor operations such as address resolution
involve very few nodes.
• IPv6 hosts are self-configuring and do not require a DHCP server to discover
addresses and other configuration information. Host startup times are reduced.

4. Explain how NATs prevent peer-to-peer applications from working properly.

Because each peer behind a NAT is represented by two addresses (a public address and a
private address), peers cannot connect without manually configuring the NAT or relay
address information about each other without making the peer-to-peer application NAT-
aware.

5. What are the key benefits of deploying IPv6 now?

• You will be able to take advantage of a much larger address space.
• You can get IPv6 address space in areas of the world that have very few available
public IPv4 addresses.
• It would restore true end-to-end communication without intermediate translation.
Peer-to-peer applications can now connect without compensating for one or more
NATs between peers.
• IPv6 forwarding is more efficient and is address-scope aware.

6. Define the Format Prefixes (FPs) for commonly used unicast addresses.
Global: 001
Link-local: 1111 1110 10
Site-local: 1111 1110 11
7. Express FEC0:0000:0000:0001:02AA:0000:0000:0007A more efficiently.
FEC0::1:2AA:0:0:7A or FEC0:0:0:1:2AA::7A. By convention, when there are multiple
equal-length blocks of zeros that can be compressed, the left-most block is compressed.

8. How many bits are expressed by "::" in the addresses 3341::1:2AA: 9FF:FE56:24DC
and FF02::2?
In 3341::1:2AA:9FF:FE56:24DC, :: expresses 32 bits ((8 - 6) x 16).
In FF02::2, :: expresses 96 bits ((8 - 2) x 16).

9. Describe the difference between unicast, multicast, and anycast addresses in terms of
a host sending packets to zero or more interfaces.
• A sending host uses a unicast address to send packets to a single interface (within the
scope of the unicast address).
• A sending host uses a multicast address to send packets to zero or more interfaces
belonging to the multicast group (within the scope of the multicast address).
• A sending host uses an anycast address to send packets to a single nearest interface
belonging to the set of interfaces using the anycast address (within the scope of the
anycast address).

10. Define the scope for each of the different types of typically used unicast addresses.
Global: The IPv6 Internet
Site-local: A site, an organization network or portion of an organization's network that
has a defined geographical location (such as an office, an office complex, or a campus)
Link-local: A single link

11. How do you distinguish ICMPv6 error messages from ICMPv6 informational
messages?
The value of the Type field for error messages is in the range 0 to 127. (The high-order
bit is set to 0.) The value of the Type field for informational messages is in the range 128
to 255. (The high-order bit is set to 1.)

12. List the five different ND messages.

Router Solicitation
Router Advertisement
Neighbor Solicitation
Neighbor Advertisement
Redirect