This video looks at internet protocol, or IP addresses, and why it’s important to stay up to speed on their new versions. Users browse the web or send email over the Internet using Internet Protocol or IP addresses. The set of unique IP addresses that has fueled the explosive growth of the Internet for over 30 years, has nearly run out. A new version of IP, is version 6, or IPv6 has been developed to add substantial addressing capacity to Internet addresses. The current version, IPv4, features 32 bit addresses which supports over 4 billion unique IP addresses ‘IPv6 addresses’ is 128 bits, and theoretically supports 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses; The only problem is that there is no easy upgrade path and IP network managers need to manage the deployment of IPv6 while continuing to maintain their IPv4 address space. The other twist is that while IPv4 addresses are represented as decimal numbers, IPv6 is denoted in hexadecimal, adding to the IP manager’s challenges. Wrap: Fortunately, many of the IP address allocation and assignment practices are similar and an IPv4/IPv6 address management solution can help IP managers accurately and confidently manage IPv6 deployments within an IPv4 network.
