IPv6: A New Era in Addressing

If you thought that 4 billion number was big, well, that number is about to be dwarfed drastically. IPv6 uses 128-bit addressing, which some people may think is only four times bigger than 32-bit addressing, but the truth is, it's a ginormous number written in scientific notation and this is a dumb-down scientific notation it's only an approximation.

IPv6 can support 3.4 * 10^38 addresses that's two to the 128th power if you want to read the full number that's the full number of IP permutations that IPv6 can support. If you want to give this number a cool name, you can say it's approximately 340 quintillion permutations of addresses. Holy crap isn't that a lot? Way more than 4 billion. So, since IPv6 can support all these new address permutations, we need a new way of writing it.

Instead of having those four small groups with little decimals in between, we actually have this newer system down below that has a lot more groups with colons instead of decimals. We can range from eight groups of four digits of zeros all the way to eight groups of four digits of FS (hexadecimal values). Now, wait a minute why are there letters here? Some may not know this I'd be glad to explain it as simply as I can.

The reason for using hexadecimal is that 0 through 9 are regular numbers that we use, but that only gives us 10 values. However, if you take 0 through F, then A, B, C, D, E, and F (that gives us 16), that makes the addresses easier to write. Let's take a look at an example of IPv6 address of all zeros. If we take one digit from this set 0-9, it provides us with 10 different values, but if we use hexadecimal and take one digit A-F then that provides us with 16 different values.

If we have four digits in this group (A-F) that's where we get our 16 to the fourth power. You take 16 and multiply it by itself for times, and that takes care of one group but if you take that quantity and multiply it by eight (the number of total groups), that is what equals that approximate 340 quintillion and two.

To reiterate, we get 164 and 8 because of our numbers in the address here. 16 values per digit four digits per group, and eight groups per address, that's how the math works out there well G Ken that's a lot of digits do we have to write them down all the time? Well, there are a couple different ways of writing this and I believe the actual standard of how this is notated is still under development last time I checked but a rather common way is this. We'll keep it simple for this presentation if you have an address that ends in consecutive groups of zeros (in fact, consecutive groups of zeros anywhere in the address), they can be omitted with this double colon rule. Pretty simple leading zeros can also be removed so let's take a look at another example.

If we take these consecutive groups of zeros out and in the one group with the number 1 in it if we take those leading zeros out (technically, this big address can be simplified with colon). So that is a general look at the IPv6 address format. Overall, that's a quick overview of 32-bit versus 128-bit IP addresses or IPv4 versus IPv6.

Now I kept this presentation rather simple because that's what I'm known for doing to make it teachable but if anyone is willing to throw in some more information in the comments below feel free to do that. And if anyone has any comments about what I discussed feel free to add them in, and if you have any questions feel free to ask and if I couldn't answer them, I'm sure someone will come along that is way smarter than me that will help you figure out your questions so thank you for tuning in, and I hope you learn something.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhello Ken here from the computer Clan here today to add another episode to our rather popular bit Series today we are going to be talking about 32-bit versus 128bit IP addresses or more simply put ipv4 versus IPv6 you've probably heard of some of these little initialisms before but perhaps you don't know what exactly they are or what the big deal is about version 6 anyway but we're going to cover as much as we can today without making your brain implode so let's take a look so first of all what is an IP address let's start simple an IP address is used to provide identifications and locations for computers on a network just like your house has a an address for mail basically or if you want to tell your friend how to get to your house you give them an address well for traffic traveling through the internet they need to know where to go too they're not just going to go to Ken's Mac you know that name could be used by a billion different people there named Ken although there's probably not a billion people named Ken in the world but basically names don't work so well for computers we use names for websites and things like that like URLs so we can remember them better but for computers they like to use numbers So currently we are using version four of this Internet Protocol standard as of now in the lovely year of 2014 ipv4 is responsible for routing most of the web's traffic so Internet Protocol version 4 or ipv4 uses what's called 32-bit addressing 32-bit addressing means we can take about 4 billion values into account just like with a 32-bit operating system that system can address about 4 billion bytes of RAM for example which is about 4 gigabytes that same number applies in this context but instead of memory management it has to do with address permutations specifically 32-bit addressing can support 4 billi 294 m967 296 different address permutations that's 2 to the 32nd power so if you multiply two by itself 32 times you get that number and that's where we get 32bit addressing from it's just a shorter way of writing that big number if you say 32 bit to someone who knows this stuff they'll know that's just basically a let's just call it a shorthand for this big number of addressing and the way ipv4 is formatted is four different groups of numbers numbers that can range from 0 to 255 that provides us with 256 different numbers we can make per group so for example below we have four groups of numbers this is a standard ipv4 address 67 80 871 192 and there would be decimals in between if you actually needed to type this into some console but we can have a whole bunch of different permutations really like I said earlier each group can start at zero and range up to 255 each group can have one of 256 different values in fact if you take 256 and raise it to the fourth power that will get you the same number as 2 to the 32nd power again it's just a different way of referencing 32-bit addressing they both equal the same number which is approximately 4 billion so if we have this ipv4 and it routes most of the web's traffic and it supports billions of addresses I mean that's a big number why do we need a new version of the Internet Protocol what is the point of this are we wasting time no we're not at all really there's a couple reasons and I'll cover a few but the biggest one is because of Ip exhaustion simply put we need more addresses we're running out in fact some systems are using the ipv standard and you know like I said earlier a lot are still using the ipv4 standard in fact if you logged onto your router You' probably see an ipv4 formatted address but we're moving to IPv6 and as the years go on we're going to really start using this because we're running out of permutations remember there's only about 4 billion permutations that 32-bit addressing can support so we need more in addition IPv6 offers a lot of other tweaks that help the protocol perform more actions automatically and overall it's more efficient and security is also kept in mind while developing this protocol so there's a lot of nice benefits to IPv6 but to keep this presentation rather simple we're just going to focus on the big one and that is the addressing so let's take a look at IPv6 so if you thought that 4 billion number was big well that number is about to be dwarfed drastically IPv6 uses 128bit addressing so some people may think well 128 it's only four times bigger than 32 what's the big deal well since we're working with exponents we're actually working with a ginormous number now written in scientific notation and this is a dumb down scientific notation it's only an approximation 128bit addressing can support 3.4 * 10 38 addresses that's two to the 128th power if you want to read the full number that's the full number of Ip permutations that IPv6 can support if you want to give this number a cool name you can say it's approximately 340 undes sillion permutations of addresses holy crap isn't that a lot way more than 4 billion so since IPv6 can support all these new address permutations we need a new way of writing it instead of having those four small groups with little decimals in between we actually have this newer system down below that has a lot more groups with colons instead of decimals we can range from eight groups of four digits of zeros all the way to eight groups of four digits of FS now wait a minute why are there letters here some may not know this I'd bead GL to explain it as simply as I can here yeah what the f why are there letters in my IP address it's known as hexadecimal and we use it because 0 through 9 are regular numbers that we use that only gives us 10 values 0 through F however take 0 through n and then a b CDE e f that gives us 16 that makes the addresses easier to write so let's take a look and an example here this is an IPv6 address of all zeros if we take one digit 0 through F that provides us 16 different values so there could be a one there there could be a nine there there could be an F there there are 16 different possible digits that can go in that spot and then we have four digits in this group that's where we get our 16 to the 4th power you take 16 and multiply it by itself for times and that takes care of one group but then if you take that quantity and multiply it by eight which is the number of total groups we can have that is what equals that approximate 340 unilan and if you don't believe me you can go into a very sophisticated calculator maybe wolf from alpha for example and actually type in 16 4th quantity to the eth power and you will get that big number we discussed earlier to re iterate we get 164 and 8 because of our numbers in the address here 16 values per digit four digits per group and eight groups per address that's how the math works out there well G Ken that's a lot of digits do we have to write them down all the time well there are a couple different ways of writing this and I believe the actual standard of how this is notated is still under development last time I checked but a rather common way is this we'll keep it simple for this presentation if you have an address that ends in consecutive groups of zeros in fact consecutive groups of zeros anywhere in the address they can be omitted with this double colon rule pretty simple leading zeros can also be removed so let's take a look at another simple example if we take these consecutive groups of zeros out and in the one group with the number one in it if we take those leading zeros out technically this big address can be simplified with colon colon 1 so that is a general look at the IPv6 address format and overall that's a quick overview of 32-bit versus 128bit IP addresses or ipv4 versus IPv6 now I kept this presentation rather simple because that's what I'm known for doing to make it teachable but if anyone is willing to throw in some more information in the comments below feel free to do that and if anyone has any comments about what I discussed feel free to add them in and if you have any questions feel free to ask and if I can't answer them I'm sure someone will come along that is way smarter than me that will help you figure out your questions so thank you for tuning in and I hope you learn something and I will see you next time if you wish to stay updated with computer Clan uploads smash that subscribe button and hit that like button if you like the video want to get a behind the scenes look at the computer Clan feel free free to sign up on our CC backstage forum and if you wish to see more content from us visit us onth computer clan.comhello Ken here from the computer Clan here today to add another episode to our rather popular bit Series today we are going to be talking about 32-bit versus 128bit IP addresses or more simply put ipv4 versus IPv6 you've probably heard of some of these little initialisms before but perhaps you don't know what exactly they are or what the big deal is about version 6 anyway but we're going to cover as much as we can today without making your brain implode so let's take a look so first of all what is an IP address let's start simple an IP address is used to provide identifications and locations for computers on a network just like your house has a an address for mail basically or if you want to tell your friend how to get to your house you give them an address well for traffic traveling through the internet they need to know where to go too they're not just going to go to Ken's Mac you know that name could be used by a billion different people there named Ken although there's probably not a billion people named Ken in the world but basically names don't work so well for computers we use names for websites and things like that like URLs so we can remember them better but for computers they like to use numbers So currently we are using version four of this Internet Protocol standard as of now in the lovely year of 2014 ipv4 is responsible for routing most of the web's traffic so Internet Protocol version 4 or ipv4 uses what's called 32-bit addressing 32-bit addressing means we can take about 4 billion values into account just like with a 32-bit operating system that system can address about 4 billion bytes of RAM for example which is about 4 gigabytes that same number applies in this context but instead of memory management it has to do with address permutations specifically 32-bit addressing can support 4 billi 294 m967 296 different address permutations that's 2 to the 32nd power so if you multiply two by itself 32 times you get that number and that's where we get 32bit addressing from it's just a shorter way of writing that big number if you say 32 bit to someone who knows this stuff they'll know that's just basically a let's just call it a shorthand for this big number of addressing and the way ipv4 is formatted is four different groups of numbers numbers that can range from 0 to 255 that provides us with 256 different numbers we can make per group so for example below we have four groups of numbers this is a standard ipv4 address 67 80 871 192 and there would be decimals in between if you actually needed to type this into some console but we can have a whole bunch of different permutations really like I said earlier each group can start at zero and range up to 255 each group can have one of 256 different values in fact if you take 256 and raise it to the fourth power that will get you the same number as 2 to the 32nd power again it's just a different way of referencing 32-bit addressing they both equal the same number which is approximately 4 billion so if we have this ipv4 and it routes most of the web's traffic and it supports billions of addresses I mean that's a big number why do we need a new version of the Internet Protocol what is the point of this are we wasting time no we're not at all really there's a couple reasons and I'll cover a few but the biggest one is because of Ip exhaustion simply put we need more addresses we're running out in fact some systems are using the ipv standard and you know like I said earlier a lot are still using the ipv4 standard in fact if you logged onto your router You' probably see an ipv4 formatted address but we're moving to IPv6 and as the years go on we're going to really start using this because we're running out of permutations remember there's only about 4 billion permutations that 32-bit addressing can support so we need more in addition IPv6 offers a lot of other tweaks that help the protocol perform more actions automatically and overall it's more efficient and security is also kept in mind while developing this protocol so there's a lot of nice benefits to IPv6 but to keep this presentation rather simple we're just going to focus on the big one and that is the addressing so let's take a look at IPv6 so if you thought that 4 billion number was big well that number is about to be dwarfed drastically IPv6 uses 128bit addressing so some people may think well 128 it's only four times bigger than 32 what's the big deal well since we're working with exponents we're actually working with a ginormous number now written in scientific notation and this is a dumb down scientific notation it's only an approximation 128bit addressing can support 3.4 * 10 38 addresses that's two to the 128th power if you want to read the full number that's the full number of Ip permutations that IPv6 can support if you want to give this number a cool name you can say it's approximately 340 undes sillion permutations of addresses holy crap isn't that a lot way more than 4 billion so since IPv6 can support all these new address permutations we need a new way of writing it instead of having those four small groups with little decimals in between we actually have this newer system down below that has a lot more groups with colons instead of decimals we can range from eight groups of four digits of zeros all the way to eight groups of four digits of FS now wait a minute why are there letters here some may not know this I'd bead GL to explain it as simply as I can here yeah what the f why are there letters in my IP address it's known as hexadecimal and we use it because 0 through 9 are regular numbers that we use that only gives us 10 values 0 through F however take 0 through n and then a b CDE e f that gives us 16 that makes the addresses easier to write so let's take a look and an example here this is an IPv6 address of all zeros if we take one digit 0 through F that provides us 16 different values so there could be a one there there could be a nine there there could be an F there there are 16 different possible digits that can go in that spot and then we have four digits in this group that's where we get our 16 to the 4th power you take 16 and multiply it by itself for times and that takes care of one group but then if you take that quantity and multiply it by eight which is the number of total groups we can have that is what equals that approximate 340 unilan and if you don't believe me you can go into a very sophisticated calculator maybe wolf from alpha for example and actually type in 16 4th quantity to the eth power and you will get that big number we discussed earlier to re iterate we get 164 and 8 because of our numbers in the address here 16 values per digit four digits per group and eight groups per address that's how the math works out there well G Ken that's a lot of digits do we have to write them down all the time well there are a couple different ways of writing this and I believe the actual standard of how this is notated is still under development last time I checked but a rather common way is this we'll keep it simple for this presentation if you have an address that ends in consecutive groups of zeros in fact consecutive groups of zeros anywhere in the address they can be omitted with this double colon rule pretty simple leading zeros can also be removed so let's take a look at another simple example if we take these consecutive groups of zeros out and in the one group with the number one in it if we take those leading zeros out technically this big address can be simplified with colon colon 1 so that is a general look at the IPv6 address format and overall that's a quick overview of 32-bit versus 128bit IP addresses or ipv4 versus IPv6 now I kept this presentation rather simple because that's what I'm known for doing to make it teachable but if anyone is willing to throw in some more information in the comments below feel free to do that and if anyone has any comments about what I discussed feel free to add them in and if you have any questions feel free to ask and if I can't answer them I'm sure someone will come along that is way smarter than me that will help you figure out your questions so thank you for tuning in and I hope you learn something and I will see you next time if you wish to stay updated with computer Clan uploads smash that subscribe button and hit that like button if you like the video want to get a behind the scenes look at the computer Clan feel free free to sign up on our CC backstage forum and if you wish to see more content from us visit us onth computer clan.com\n"