Internet Protocol Version 6 IPV6 Technology

¶ … Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6) technology, one of the technologies listed on Gartner's 2004 Hype Cycle that has high visibility today because new IPv4 addresses are nearly exhausted. On the 2012 Hype Cycle, IPv6 is now listed in the "Trough of Disillusionment," yet the U.S. government is still directing that transition to this protocol continue:

Name at least three advantages that government organizations will gain by transitioning to IPv6 technology today, in 2013. Explain why.

The government may actually do well by transitioning to IPv6 technology. There are3 various reasons for its doing so. Three of the reasons are the following:

More Efficient Routing

Given that government networking and cloud computing can be 'stuffed' with heavy traffic, it is essential that the government archives as effective a routing process as possible. This is particularly so since it is essential for the government to have instant and faultless communication with its many recipients and nodes. IPv6 technology can help the government achieve this efficient routing by IPv6 technology reducing the size of routing tables and making the routing more hierarchical.

The government has many customers and dealing with each of these prefixes can be cumbersome and lengthy. The benefit of to IPv6 technology is that aggregates each of these prefixes into one single one and announces this prefix to the IPv6 technology Internet.

Additionally, routing is also made more efficient by fragmentation being handled by the source device instead of by the router as is done by other devices.

2. Security

The government deals with a great amount of data and it is essential that it protects this data specifically since here and there hackers have managed to get through and make news by hijacking government sites.

IPv6 technology is beneficial for the government in that it provides optimum security, authentication and data integrity. IPv4 ICMP packets have the potential to carry malware and are therefore blocked by firewalls, but the government (and others) can use ICMPv6, which is the implementation of the Internet Control Message Protocol for IPv6 since IPSec can be applied to the ICMPv6 packets.

3. Directed Data Flows

The government often has to reach numerous destinations simultaneously. This makes it a perfect match for IPv6 technology. IPv6 supports multicast rather than broadcast, and multicast allows bandwidth-intensive packet flows (that are like multimedia streams) to be sent to numerous destinations simultaneously. This saves network bandwidth disinterested hosts no longer need to process broadcast packets

Furthermore -- and this is also immensely beneficial to the government - the IPv6 header also has a new field, called Flow Label that can identify packets belonging to the same flow. (Network Computing)

2. Name at least two disadvantages that government organizations will have to face if they transitioning to IPv6 technology today, in 2013. Explain why.

The most significant disadvantage is that there is no clear plan in sight for transitioning from IPV4 to IPV6. Recent versions of all operating systems including Microsoft, Linux, and Apple's Mac OS X do incorporate IPV6, but these are operating systems and it is still unclear how Internet will make the transition. The degree of backwards compatibility between internet and IPV6 is limited, aside from which there is a lot to work through. A smooth speedy and non-complex transition is unlikely. The problem to government is that the more flawed and complex the process, the more painful and messy it may likely be for end users with mistakes common at least in its beginning stages.