Reply to post: Re: IPv6 isn't a very good solution?

It could be 'five to ten years' before the world finally drags itself away from IPv4

Nanashi

Re: IPv6 isn't a very good solution?

That would... not be simple. Or rather, it displays a complete misunderstanding of how v4 addresses work. Addresses in v4 aren't 4 bytes, they're 4 octets (32 bits). Bytes don't have to be 8 bits long, but v4 addresses are a fixed 32 bits regardless of the byte length of your computer's architecture. (It has to be this way because IP is used to talk between computer systems that use different byte lengths.)

You could design a protocol that used 40 bit addresses if you wanted, but it would end up looking very much like v6. In particular it'd have all of the same problems deploying as v6 would, because its 40 bit addresses are longer than v4's 32-bit addresses and that's where all the problems come from in the first place. You'd still have to patch all OSs and software to handle the new address length, upgrade legacy devices, update DHCP, DNS etc etc etc.

On top of that, 40 bits is woefully insufficient even for today's internet, let alone the future internet. After you finished deploying your 40-bit address family, you'd have to turn around and do it all again to increase the address size further. It'd be a complete waste of effort since you'd be back to doing v6 anyway.

So... no, that wouldn't even be a solution, let alone a simple one.

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