What is IPv6 and what does it do? When I think of the internet and its components, I think of a cluster of streets and neighborhoods. And every house that resides on those streets needs to have an address. IPv6 is much like each one of those distinct street addresses with maybe some slight differences. “Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) is a network layer protocol that enables data communications over a packet switched network. Packet switching involves the sending and receiving of data in packets between two nodes in a network.”(http://whatismyipaddress.com/ip-v6)
Also known as the backbone to the internet IPv6 is the newest version of the protocol. It is actually not widely used yet today and industry professionals are just now starting to get concerned about the limited number of distinct IP addresses that are still available. Before IPv6 and what we use more commonly today is IPv4. You might say “hey what about IPv5, what happened to that standard?” IPv5 ended up being implemented by a lot of private industry like Apple, IBM and NeXT. Another reason that the industry is moving to IPv6 is it increased the number of bytes used in addressing from 4 bytes to 16 bytes. That can and will increase the available number of IP addresses for people and organizations to use. With all of the new devices and appliances now coming out on the market like smart phones, video game consoles, and new internet TVs the need for more distinct IP addresses is greater than ever. One bad thing to note about this unfortunate circumstance is that a lot of the internet’s routers and switches in both the home and throughout the rest of the web will need to be updated.
