China launches largest IPv6 network

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"IPv4, the incumbent Internet protocol standard, gives its
data packets just 32 bits of address space. By increasing
this to 128 bits, IPv6 provides billions more IP addresses
and allows many more devices to be simultaneously linked
to the Internet."

Theoretically IPv4 has 4.3 billion addresses (2 ^ 32),
practically it has only 3.2 billion addresses.

Theoretically IPv6 provides (2^128)
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456
addresses. The figure is quite mind-boggling!

"Some have said that techniques such as network address
translation, which lets up to 257 nodes in a corporation sit
behind a single IP address, mean it is possible to work
around IPv4's limitations. "

The number stub domain devices able to use NAT
(overloading) is not restricted to 257 nodes. This is
bounded by unique port/external IP combinations, but
practically limited because of the Class C unregistered
network addresses used by most DHCP daemons in
inexpensive NAT routers (even then the figure will not be
257). NAT can support many thousands of nodes.

Of course corporations of this size are unlikely to be
encouraging connection from their internal networks
to the outside and would use proxy servers for control and
monitoring.

Whilst no wanting to appear anti-IPv6, the fact remains if
universities and corporations currently hoarding IPv4
addresses, for no other than historical reasons, were to
reorganise their networks we could happily continue with
IPv4 for quite some time.

But kudos for China for giving it a go:-)

Posted by: Richard Flude   Posted on: 12/29/04 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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