Question

How will you coordinate with other organizations with which the networks connected to determine how to handle their IPv4 or IPv6 traffic?

Answer 1

First What is Internet Protocol (IP):-

IP (short for Internet Protocol) specifies the technical format of packets and the addressing scheme for computers to communicate over a network. Most networks combine IP with a higher-level protocol called Transmission Control Protocol (TCP), which establishes a virtual connection between a destination and a source.

IP by itself can be compared to something like the postal system. It allows you to address a package and drop it in the system, but there's no direct link between you and the recipient. TCP/IP, on the other hand, establishes a connection between two hosts so that they can send messages back and forth for a period of time.

Internet Protocol Versions:-

There is currently two versions of Internet Protocol (IP): IPv4 and a new version called IPv6. IPv6 is an evolutionary upgrade to the Internet Protocol. IPv6 will coexist with the older IPv4 for some time.

What is IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4):-

IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4) is the fourth revision of the Internet Protocol (IP) used to to identify devices on a network through an addressing system. The Internet Protocol is designed for use in interconnected systems of packet-switched computer communication networks.

IPv4 is the most widely deployed Internet protocol used to connect devices to the Internet. IPv4 uses a 32-bit address scheme allowing for a total of 2^32 addresses (just over 4 billion addresses). With the growth of the Internet, it is expected that the number of unused IPv4 addresses will eventually run out because every device -- including computers, smartphones, and game consoles -- that connects to the Internet requires an address.

What is IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6):-

A new Internet addressing system Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) is being deployed to fulfill the need for more Internet addresses.IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) is also called IPng (Internet Protocol next generation) and it is the newest version of the Internet Protocol (IP) reviewed in the IETF standards committees to replace the current version of IPv4 (Internet Protocol Version 4).

IPv6 is the successor to Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4). It was designed as an evolutionary upgrade to the Internet Protocol and will, in fact, coexist with the older IPv4 for some time. IPv6 is designed to allow the Internet to grow steadily, both in terms of the number of hosts connected and the total amount of data traffic transmitted.IPv6 is often referred to as the "next generation" Internet standard and has been under development. IPv6 was born out of concern that the demand for IP addresses would exceed the available supply.

The Benefits of IPv6:-While increasing the pool of addresses is one of the most often-talked about the benefit of IPv6, there are other important technological changes in IPv6 that will improve the IP protocol:

• No more NAT (Network Address Translation)
• Auto-configuration
• No more private address collisions
• Better multicast routing
• Simpler header format
• Simplified, more efficient routing
• The true quality of service also called "flow labeling".
• Built-in authentication and privacy support
• Flexible options and extensions
• Easier administration

The Difference Between IPv4 and IPv6 Addresses:-

An IP address is binary numbers but can be stored as text for human readers. For example, a 32-bit numeric address (IPv4) is written in decimal as four numbers separated by periods. Each number can be zero to 255. For example, 1.160.10.240 could be an IP address.

IPv6 addresses are 128-bit IP address written in hexadecimal and separated by colons. An example IPv6 address could be written like this: 3ffe:1900:4545:3:200:f8ff:fe21:67cf.

coordinate with other organizations with which the networks connected to determine how to handle their IPv4 or IPv6 traffic:-

coordination with other organization It would have been so easy if the early Internet and TCP/IP network designers had made IPv6 backward compatible with IPv4. They didn't. IPv4's 32-bit 4.3 billion addresses look more than enough addresses for the ARPANET/Internet. That was the Internet then, this is the Internet now.

There are several ways of handling this issue. Let me warn you right now, none of them are perfect, but one, or more of them, should work for your company. Before buying into any of these technologies though you must thoroughly test Ipv6-to-IPv4 and back again component interoperability before deploying them. There's a lot that goes wrong, and you don't want any of it happening during business hours on your production network.

IPv4/IPv6 co-existence can take one of three forms. One is dual stack, where your network hardware runs IPv4 and IPv6 simultaneously. Next is when you "tunnel" one protocol within another. Usually, this means taking IPv6 packets and encapsulating them in IPv4 packets. The technical basis for these is outlined in the RFC 4213 Basic Transition Mechanisms for IPv6 Hosts and Routers. Finally, there's Network Address Translation-Protocol Translation (NAT-PT) aka RFC-2766. This works just like the name says, software or a device translates IPv6 packets into IPv4 packets.

While Network Address Translation (NAT) fans might like this at first glance, it comes with its own set of problems. As Cisco points out in its excellent white paper, "Network Address Translator-Protocol Translator," "The application of each area must be well understood, as the protocol does not represent a generic mechanism that would be universally applicable." In short, you'd better know your way around Application Level Gateways (ALG) if you plan on deploying NAT-PT.

In addition, a core difference between NAT-PT and IPv4 NAT is that address translations must be done for both incoming and outgoing traffic. This can get complicated in a hurry. You could use static, bi-directional mapping, but that will get out of date quickly and it doesn't scale worth a damn. Of course, you could use Domain Name System (DNS), but old-style DNS servers don't support IPv6's AAAA records. And, again, I see real scaling problems as those DNS servers that do support IPv6 get constantly bombarded by address requests.

With Dual-IP stacks, your computers, routers, switches, and other devices run both protocols, but IPv6 will be the preferred protocol. A common procedure is to start by enabling both TCP/IP protocol stacks on the wide area network (WAN) core routers, then perimeter routers and firewalls, followed by your data-center routers and finally the desktop access routers. As the public Internet transitions to IPv6, your network administrators may need to deploy dual-stack capable switches on your; edges earlier.

The upside of this approach is that Dual-IP stacks are supported by all the major operating system and network vendors. The downside is that most legacy networking hardware and servers don't support IPv6. This can lead to such problems as dual-stack edge switches running into DNS (Domain Name Server) problems while users are trying to get to various Internet sites. In addition, many versions of Internet applications, even such commonplace ones as File Transfer Protocol (FTP), won't work with IPv6.

One way to answer these problems is to use Dual Stack Application Level Gateways (DS-ALG) These gateways are commonly used as proxies that translate between the two protocols over the IPv4 Internet.

The bad news with this approach is that it will only work for specific applications. It also has the potential to slow traffic down as every packet has to be inspected to see if it needs DS-ALG services.

In tunneling, one protocol is carrying inside another. Usually, that's going to be IPv6 in IPv4. These tunnels can move your IPv6 packets across both your internal IPv4 WAN and the mainly IPv4 Internet, Someday, when IPv6 becomes the top Internet protocol, we'll use IPv6 tunnels to carry IPv4 traffic.

There are two kinds of tunnels: manual, aka static, and dynamic. Manually configured IPv6 tunneling requires configuration at both ends of the tunnel. The manual approach is best just for connecting say corporate IPv6 intranets over the Internet. It's not a good answer to any other IPv6 Internet problem.

Dynamic tunnels use a variety of techniques to establish packet destination address and routing on the fly. This makes them far easier to create and maintain. I

The most popular dynamic tunneling technique is 6to4. It has the advantage of not requiring an explicit tunnel set-up. Instead, it uses dedicated relay routers to forward encapsulated IPv6 packets over IPv4 links. A significant advantage of 6to4 is that it lets you set up Ipv6/V4 tunnels without requiring a lot of manual effort. 6To4 uses IPv4 unicast to create point-to-point links over the IPv4 backbone for transmission.

To be used safely, your vendor and network engineers must be sure to set its security up carefully. It's all too easy to hide bad traffic inside the encapsulated packets and to spoof addresses within the IPv4 and IPv6 headers, which can lead to Denial of Service (DoS)attacks.

These are some of the most popular ways to get IPv6 and IPv4 on the same network. There are many others. Want to know what the worst news about all of them is? None of them are very compatible with the others. As I've said before, like it or lump it you are going to need to move to IPv6.

In the meantime, you're almost certain to need one, or more, of these technologies in the next few years. Again, Before deploying any IPv4/IPv6 bridging solutions, you're going to need to spend a lot of time having your network engineers and vendors making sure that everything in your new network stacks can interoperate. It' all too easy to mix and match equipment and methods in ways that will slow your network down to a crawl.

I will also add that you must test out the hardware and software before signing off on it. I've already found that a lot of stuff, which says it's IPv6 ready isn't really, but that's a story for another day.