| The Internet has grown exponentially in the recent years. As the Internet grows, Transmission Control Protocol and Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) has received worldwide recognition because TCP/IP supports the interconnections to the Internet.; In the next few years, TCP/IP will face two major problems. First, every computer on the Internet requires a unique IP address, and consequently, TCP/IP will run out of IP addresses. Second, each network on the Internet requires an entry on the routing table. As the number of networks grows, the size of the routing table will grow also. Eventually, routers will not be able to support the Internet routing table.; To solve these problems, Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) was introduced. IPv6 supports 128-bit addressing, which will have millions of millions of addresses available. IPv6 will use hierarchical addressing architecture, which will prevent the routing table explosion.; Simulations, emulations, analytical modeling, and actual measurements were used to study these two areas. The results showed that the 128-bit addressing will not cause much delay in the network; however, there are some indications that changing from a flat network structure to a hierarchical structure may cause a substantial delay in many applications, especially in remote login and in FTP applications. |
