IP stands for Internet Protocol and determines the technical structure of a data packet and the addressing scheme of computers to communicate with each other in the network. Today, the IP protocol is combined with TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) and establishes a virtual connection between the source and the destination. IP is a unique address in the network and is like a postal code, but there is no direct link between the source and the destination. It does not. The TCP/IP protocol establishes a connection between the receiver and the sender, resulting in the transfer of data packets between the two. Currently, there are two versions of IP: IPv4 and the newer version, IPv6.

But the importance of IPv6 in the future of the Internet world is as follows:

-On the third day of February 2011, a group of the largest organizations and associations including ICANN, NRO, IAB and the Internet Society (ISOC) came together and announced that IPv4 Internet addresses were fully allocated. In fact, there are public IPv4 addresses to be assigned to organizations by Regional Address Authorities, but there are no reserved IPv4 addresses.

– On June 8, 2011, Microsoft and other members of the Internet of Things Community (ISOC) came together to test the communication, issues and performance of Dual-stack (cooperation between IPv4 and IPv6).

-In April 2012, the IETF published RFC 6540 for IPv6, which requires all network equipment to support IPv6.

– On June 6, 2012, Microsoft and other members of the Internet Society (ISOC) came together and officially and permanently enabled Dual-stack in network cards.

It is no longer possible to use IPv6 and the time to use it in computer networks has come.

IPv6, which is also called IPng (Internet Protocol next generation), is a series of specifications written by the IETF, which is considered an upgrade of IPv4. IPv6 was developed in the mid-90s, and its basis is It is similar to IP Version 4. Network equipment can use IPv6 to transfer packets across the network platform, and tools such as ping operate similarly to the IPv4 platform with minor changes.

One of the most important changes in IPv6 is the increase in IP length from 32 bits to 128 bits. This increase in length is due to the ever-increasing growth and development of the Internet and the use of IP, and foresight for that matter. IPv4 is in binary form consisting of 4 to octet, which are separated by dot (.), but IPv6 is in hexadecimal form, which are separated by colon (:). A series of IPv4 defects have been fixed in IPv6, and it has features such as security and mobility.

Other features of IPv6 include:

1- Support for source and destination addresses with a length of 128 bits (16 bytes).

2- IPSec support.

3- Using the Flow Label field to identify data packets and perform QOS by the router.

4- IPv6 header does not include Checksum.

5- IPv6 does not require a DHCP server or manual configuration, which leads to easier management.

6- IPv6 uses AAAA record to convert name to IP and PTR record to convert IP to hostname.

7- Support for a data packet size of 1280 bytes.

8- IPv6 uses Multicast Neighbor Solicitation messages to map IP addresses to Link-Layer addresses.

9- IPv6 uses Multicast Listener Discovery (MLD) messages to manage members in a network subnet.

10- IPv6 uses ICMPv6 Router Solicitation and Router Advertisement messages to determine and select the best Default Gateway in the network.

11- No need for NAT – no interference with Private IP addresses.

12- Another very useful feature of IPv6 is the ability to configure itself automatically, even without using DHCPv6. In this way, IPv6 can automatically configure a link-local address for each interface.

There are three types of automatic configuration:

1- Stateless: The configuration of addresses and other settings is based on receiving router notification messages.

2- Statefull: The configuration is based on the use of an address configuration protocol such as DHCPv6, in this case, addresses and other configuration settings are received by it.

3- both: The configuration is based on receiving router notification messages that include prefix information options.

Types of IPv6 addresses:

1- Unicast: A unicast address refers to a single interface and actually to an IP in the network and is addressed to that single interface. The types of unicast addresses in IPv6 are as follows:

A) Global unicast addresses: This type of address is the same as Public addresses in IPv4. These addresses are routed and accessible on the Internet.

b) Link-local addresses: In this type of address, the first 10 bits are 1111111010, followed by 54 zero bits and are used to communicate with neighboring nodes in an internal network without a router. This type of address is similar to the APIPA address in IPv4 with the network range 169.254.0.0/16.

c) Site-local addresses: This type of address starts with the first 10 bits of 1111111011 and is the same as Private addresses in IPv4.

d) Unique local addresses: In this type of address, the first seven bits starting with 1111110, 40 bits for Global ID, 16 bits for Subnet ID and 64 bits for Interface ID are considered.

e) Special addresses:

1- It contains the address (:: Unspecified (0:0:0:0:0:0:0:0 or as a sign of the absence of an address and is like 0.0.0.0 in IPv4). This address has never been given to an interface and The title of the destination address is not used.

2- Loopback address which is the same (0:0:0:0:0:0:0:1 or 1::) and is used for interface testing and is the same as 127.0.0.1 in IPv4.

d) Transition addresses: This address is for the purpose of transition and migration from IPv4 to IPv6 and coexistence between the two and includes the following:

A) IPv4-compatible address B) IPv4-mapped address C) 6to4 address D) ISATAP address E) Teredo address

2- Multicast: A Multicast address refers to zero, one or more interfaces on one or more hosts. In a multicast group, a data packet sent to a multicast address is sent to all interfaces of that group. A multicast address is used for one-to-many communication.

3- Anycast: An Anycast address is used for one-to-one-of-many communication and by delivering data packets to an interface. Anycast addresses are derived from Unicast addresses, and their working range depends on the working range of the reference Unicast addresses. All routers in a network have the same Anycast addresses. Now, if a packet is sent to the Anycast address, it will reach the nearest Anycast address on the router.

Note that RFC 4291 did not define a broadcast address in IPv6. All types of Broadcast addressing in IPv4 play a role in Multicast addresses in IPv6. For example, a broadcast address in IPv4 is replaced by the address FF02::1, which is a multicast address, and is sent to all nodes in the local network. Also, the loopback address is 127.0.0.1 in IPv4-based networks and 1:: in IPv6-based networks.

History of IPv6 at Microsoft Corporation

Research and development on IPv6 was first done in 2001 by Microsoft to support products. At that time, vendors of software and hardware products rarely supported IPv6, and dedicated IPv6 routers were less efficient for routing packets on the IPv6 platform.

In 2002-2004, an ISATAP instance was developed in each region, and in 2005-2006, Microsoft received the new global IPv6 address space from ARIN and RIPE, and the entire network was re-addressed. Routers were compatible with IPv6 routing of data packets, but end-user IPv6 support was slow due to security issues and low performance.

In the years 2007 to 2010, with the introduction of Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista, the IPv6 platform was installed and active by default on both client and server operating systems. After the expansion of ISATAP usage, its infrastructure was redesigned to distribute ISATAP traffic service. In the meantime, many equipments, including IDS, were adapted to the IPv6 architecture.