This post maybe in a bit tough language from the other posts in this website. But after going through this post you will understand it very well.
Any device connected in a network (may be Internet) has IP address which is logical address and is mostly given by Internet Service Provider(ISP). This IP address is handled on 3rd layer of protocol stack called network layer in OSI model of networking. Now, what is the need of IP address ?
Let's say a sender wants to send the data to some device. Call sender device A and receiver device B. If A and B are in the same network, then they can communicate using only MAC address. But if they are in the difference network, they have to have logical address to identify each other. This facility is provided by IP address.
Now, to manage IP address, we have to have some set of rules which are agreed upon by all the parties that are part of the network to smooth the process of communication. So, this set of rules are considered to be a protocol when gets an implementation part. To identify each host uniquely, they have to have unique IP addresses.
Now, there was also an organization called IANA (Internet Assigned Number Authority) that can give IP addresses to other organizations as per requirement. In starting, they estimated they 2^32 (= Approx. 4.3 billion = 4.3 * 10^9) IP addresses would be sufficient for the Internet for next few years. And then the protocol was built and implemented in the efficient manner. This protocol is known as IPv4 (IP version 4).
As and when a packet is passed through network layer, some information is added to the packet called IP header. Usually it ranges from 20 bytes to 60 bytes which is useful in finding the next hop or the required path for routing. It includes Source IP, Destination IP address, Header length, and also some error check fields, synchronization fields for flow control, etc.
But, now it seems like all the IP addresses of IPv4 are running out and we need more IPs. The one reason is that now most of the smartphones are having Wireless facilities for Internet, apart from that Internet of Things is also trending in the market. Thus, we have to move from IPv4 and take next step in that direction. So, the new IP protocol has been built called IPv6 which has got 2^128 addresses (more than one can think of , approx. 3 * 10^38).
Now, not only number of hosts, but as the IPv6 has come, it has also got far more fields in the header format and thus providing far more facilities like larger amount of data can be transferred in one packet. As networks have become more reliable over errors, we can send larger packets in IPv6.
The End Notes
Still for more differences, we can look for its IP header fields. It provides detailed information about the features each version of IP provides.
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