Chapter 12. Internet Protocol Version 6 | Solaris System Management (New Riders Professional Library)

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T HE INTERNET PROTOCOL (IP) ADDRESS is the common means by which data is transported between communications networks. It also identifies the particular computer (or, more specifically , the network interface) that is connected to the network. Every node (PC or workstation) that connects to the Internet requires a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address. For home users, the IP address is supplied by the Internet service provider (ISP).

With everyone using IP, the increase in the number of computers being connected to the Internet has given rise to a problem: Available unique addresses are in short supply. The current version of IP, version 4 (IPv4), has a limit of about 4 billion addresses. Various predictions by industry specialists indicate that the address range could be exhausted as early as 2002. Indeed, if subnetting and Network Address Translation (NAT) had not been used, the numbers might have already been exhausted. The impact of this is that any new computers or devices that require an IP address to connect to the Internet will not be capable of doing so.

A further problem is related to the use of Internet routers. Originally, IPv4, the current protocol, was designed for a relatively small network of mainly academics and engineers , primarily for file transfer operations. IP addresses were not allocated in a particularly structured or efficient manner, such as geographical location. This requires Internet routers to store details of many more routes than were originally intended. The routing information that is needed to cope with the diversity of addresses is becoming unmanageable.

The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) designed a new version of IP that provides, among other things, a vast increase in the number of available addresses that can be allocated. Sun Microsystems has been heavily involved with the design and development of IPv6 and is represented on virtually every major working group of the IETF. Sun was also the first vendor to release an IPv6 prototype to the Internet community.

This chapter describes the basic features of IPv6 and tells how it differs from the current IP structure. It also covers the steps that the system manager should be taking to prepare for the implementation of IPv6. Finally, it gives a brief discussion on how IPv6 affects the system manager and the business to which he is providing a service. It is assumed that the reader is familiar with the basic concept of IP addresses. For more in-depth information, an excellent reference book is identified in the Appendix, "Resources": IPv6 Clearly Explained , by Peter Loshin.

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