Networking - IPv6 Innovation

One reason why IPv4 addresses aren’t running out as fast as predicted 10 years ago is that many, if not most, IP-capable systems today use private address space and connect to the Internet using Network Address Translation (NAT). However, NAT is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it allows for simple extension of IP connectivity to large numbers of hosts and IP-enabled devices everywhere where a single address is available, but the downside is that NAT gets in the way of many applications, especially those that don’t adhere to a simple client/server model. Because with NAT in effect, several hosts share the translated IP address, and having hosts elsewhere on the Net connect to one of the NAT’ed hosts becomes a problem. This is similar to the situation where several phones are connected to a single line: for outgoing calls, there isn’t much of a problem, but there is no easy way to get incoming calls delivered to the right phone.

For services such as the Web and email, there isn’t much of a problem: the Web browser or email client always contacts the server. For these services, only a limited number of servers need to receive incoming connections. However, with other types of applications, everyone is a server. This is the case with Voice over IP (VoIP), where IP-enabled phones connect directly to each other, to similar applications such as video conferencing, and to any type of peer-topeer application. NAT is a real stumbling block when it comes to adopting these new technologies. IPv6 can solve this by giving each IP-enabled system its own address, allowing for renewed innovation.
 

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