IPv6 - Next Step In IP Security

IPv6, Introduction

The high rate at wich the internet continualy evolves forced the Internet Engineering Task Force(IETF) to find IP solutions to handle the grouth. Designed to handle the fast paced growth of the Internet, the IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) is the new version that will replace the widely used IPv4(Internet Protocol version 4) which is already obsolete.

IPv6, Primary Benefits

Two primary advantages of IPv6 are the support for stateless address auto configuration and the address space that is much larger. Other benefits of the new IPv6 are that the security is natively defined in the protocol, the simple Plug and Play (thanks to stateless auto configuration), the IP mobility is optimized.

Network Security and IPv6

First, we need to understand the meaning of "network security", in order to understand it's relationship with IPv6. On the internet the concept of security has usually focused on data security, authentification and data privacy. In the latest years the network security has been expanded.

Avoiding single points of failure while building the networks helps making them reliable when problems occur in a localized section. This way the network security has expanded and it now makes the Internet able to resist in the face of natural disasters or physical attacks.

Allowing a much simpler emergency response networks deployment, IPv6 offers great benefits in both areas. With superior data security, IPv6 allows us to to have more robust networks.

Data Security

The Internet Protocol security(IPsec) provides support for data encryption, user authentificaton and data integrity. IPv6 has support for IPsec and is expected that this way Internet Protocol security will be much widely available on the IPv6 end-nodes.

Conclusion

With the support for IPsec, IPv6 should create wider availability of end-node implementations. IPv6 will make the deployment and implementation of emergency networks easier with the included stateless address auto configuration. In short, IPv6 will make out lives safer an more secure.

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