Accepted Answer

Hi XXXXXXXX,

Introduction

This topic covers the transition from the old-ip (now) world to the future IPv6:

The old IP world, "IPv4", the one we all know and love with the xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx or 192.168.0.1 is getting too small for our growing internet world, supporting only 4.3 billion addresses so in forsight, many years ago in 1996 "IPv6" was created with the format
xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx (as hex) or 1.2.3.4.5.6.7.8 decimal and support for 2^128 devices ( it's a lot ).

Dual-stack which regards to routers means handling both IPv4 and IPv6 protocols. This is because in the very near future < 5 years we are going to see devices/servers/NICs with IPv4 and IPv6 support and IPv6 only. The first application I personally believe will be mobile phones and home gadgets for IPv6 only. This has not yet happend though.

A dual-stack router can also be used to join a IPv4, IPv4/6 mixed with a native IPv6 only network, adding holding virtual IPv6 addresses for IPv4 devices on the other side, in a simular fashion deployed by NAT (Network-Address-Translation) proxys when computers within a firewalled area are only seen as one IP address on the outside.

IPsec, a builtin security protocol for IPv6 may also be a reason to deploy dual-stack router to allow easier handling.

Another reason for IPv6 deployment is any large scale IP-based network/networking devices in a new sector, for example, networking in China or Russia. The sheer amount of IP Addresses needed would exhaust IPv4 very quickly. In the internet, unlike the intranet, there is not a sheer endless supply of IP Address ranges. Many large corporation hold large ranges of IP Addresses !

- Steven

Expert:	Steven Hansen
Pos. Feedback:	100.0 %
Accepts:
Answered:	3/6/2007

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Bsc. (Hons) IT (5yrs), Networking, Windows/Unix, Hardware and Application Expert