Communication

Abstract

As a communication through the Internet is increasingly advancing, the resources for devices’ addressing are also increasing, the major challenge being with the technology (Cisco.com, 2012).  The paper presents an assessment of IPv6 and its support protocols from information assurance’s point of view. It describes the considerations that are needful if there should be a migration from IPv4 to IPv6 and the IA issues that may arise in case there will be a migration of Z Corporation. The paper looks at the decisions that will be in requirement by the policy makers, and the end provides the recommendations on the best way Z Corporation should proceed.

 Introduction

Ipv4‘s use has a wide usage in today’s Internet communications and many devices initially were specifically for communication basing on IPv4. However, the upcoming IPv6 has numerous additions of functionalities because it is an evolution from IPv4 rather than a radical change (Kessler, 1997). The IPv6 offers a number of added desirable features such as self-configuration of devices, hierarchical addressing architecture, data security and integrity, mobile computing, etc. (Saldana, et al., n.d). The paper focuses on the movement from IPv4 to IPv6 basing on those added features but also considers the IA issues that are worth taking into account.

IPv4 limitations

Its design was in the early 1980s particularly for use with small number of users in USA (Frankel et al., 2010). The technology in those days was not highly advanced as is the case today. There is growth of computing technology ion the recent years, for instance, IP networking. Because of the high rise in the computing technology and Internet usage, the IPv4 does not meet the demand in terms of address capacity. There are address allocation policies, and restrictions technologies that were useful in the 1990s, and one of the technologies in adoption in response to that is network address translation (NAT).

NAT makes private IPv4 addresses that have partial functionality to the global Internet. An NAT-capable IPv4 address router, however, at an organization’s boundary can connect to the entire network of the organization to the Internet. However, the network should have privately addressed nodes in that entire organization. A host utilizing private addressing with an NQAT device cannot have completely peer-to-peer relationship with other hosts through the Internet or enterprise network with global unique addressing.

Another weakness is that IPv4’s design favor interoperability over security and it does not have features to protect the confidentiality, availability or integrity of communications (Frankel et al., 2010). It could neither for instance provide cryptography protection on data in regard to preventing eavesdropping or manipulation nor provide a mechanism for endpoints to authenticate each other. Nevertheless, there are new technologies that have inclusion to the IPv4 to address the issue of security. In the case of IPv6, the features have inclusion as necessary components.

IPv6 Basics

The protocol has many improved features than its predecessor such as larger address space, IPSec, auto-configuration, efficient transmission, header structure, route aggregation and quality of service (Partridge, 2007).  There are also other IA implications that make IPv6 more preferable to IPv4.  Let me talk about some of those capabilities below.

Addressing capabilities

IPv6 has extended address space that is 28 bits, unlike IPv4 that has only 34 bits. The larger address space of IPv6 provides enough space to support trillions of addresses that are enough to serve every human being on the planet (Frankel et al., 2010). There is a fixed host identifier that lets any device to maintain a consistent identity regardless of its location in a network. The numerous numbers of addresses make it possible for end-to-end communication between devices that have globally unique IP addresses. The addresses can also support delivery of peer-to-peer services that have high data content like voice and video.

It is possible to add a Scope field to multicast thus improving the scalability of multicast routing.  The many numbers of addresses are, and the advantage to ZCorp as it has many offices, and the number of users is likely to increase with time. Since IPv6 also supports for global addressing, it will be possible to work with the network addressing translation (NAT) of ZCorp to provide improved network services. An IA issue that arises with the larger address spaces is that the looking up of addresses is more expensive to the hardware and software for processing the IP headers (Partridge et al., 2007). Partridge and his colleagues also claim that in the case of devices that do more sophisticated pattern matching for example firewalls, the lookup[ costs are even higher.

Auto configuration

Since IPv6 addresses are larger than IPv4 addresses, IPv6 has a mechanism to ensure that there is a reduction of the number of times users will have to enter these addresses. It offers two types of auto-configuration, “stateful” and “stateless” and that is a key benefit in IPv6 in comparison with IPv4. Auto configuration mechanism provides true plug-and-play connectivity just as in the case of DHCP auto configuration for IPv4. So, ZCorp will have more advantage as the functions of the DHCP can still be replaceable with IPv6 with added functionalities.

The “stateful” auto-configuration for IPv6 is equivalent to IPv4’s DHCP. It has that name because the DHCP server and clients must maintain state information to avoid conflicts of addresses as well as renewing addresses over time. In stateless auto configuration, a host can acquire an address automatically without the need to establish a server for delving out address space. A host can propose a unique address, as well as propose its use on the network.

IPv6 security

Many of today’s TCP/IP applications already have security mechanisms, but, Kessler argues that security need implementation at the lowest protocol layer possible.  IPv4 had few security mechanisms, and authentication and privacy at the lowest layers have no provision in IPv4. In IPv6, there is the IP Authentication Header, which is an extension header for providing integrity and authentication for IP packets. That means that the packets sent in the Internal and to an external network of ZCorp are safe should IPv6 be put to implementation.

Another security mechanism in IPv6 is IP Encapsulation Security Payload, an extension header providing integrity and confidentiality for IP packets. That is useful in encrypting an entire packet and even the higher layer portion of the payload. These security features reduce the security effort as authentication takes place end-to-end when there is session establishment thus providing more secure communications even in the absence of firewall routers.

IPv6 quality of service

The flow label and priority fields in its header are useful by a source for identifying packets requiring special handling by network routers. The QOS capabilities in IPv6 have extension to IPv4’s type of service in terms of capabilities. The desired priority of service has support for the special handling of IPv6, and there is support for applications that need guaranteed throughput and end-to-end delay. The source can identify the priority of a packet for the priority field. Identification of flow can uniquely take place through combining the source address and non-zero flow labels. There is also IPv6/ATM drivers that are available in the market that ZCorp needs to install to allow for ATM in the IPv6 protocol (Armitage et al., 1999).

Implementation plan

In the transition to IPv6 from IPv4, it will start with implementing a new protocol in the communications infrastructure. It will then continue with applications, services and modifications of management systems ending with the extended protocol network devices. Proper modifications in the old communications architecture and structure are necessary. The modification should take place in the data-link layer. For the ZCorp, the access points need to receive new IPv6 addresses for them to be able to access the IPv6 network from any point. The implementation plan also should include the following:

1.    The creating a standard for the new network protocol's use.

2.    The basic services on the network should be available with the use of the new network.

3.    There should be access to IPv6 information services as they are necessary for using the organization’s data processing resources.

4.    Documentation and technical support so as to aid the users move to new levels and also the documentation of performance advantages.

5.    The support services for problems that might occur during the migration.

6.    Assigning to the new protocol and address a space management service.

7.    To have security management service such as filter, audit, access control, backup, etc., in the corporate network.

                                                  

References

Armitage, G. (1999). IPv6 over ATM networks. 

Frankel, S. et al. (2010). Guidelines for the secure deployment of IPv6. 

Kessler, G. (1997). IPv6: Next generation Internet protocol. 

Partridge, C. et al. (n.d). Information assurance and the transformation to IP Version 6 (IPv6). 

Punithavathani, D. (2009). IPv4/IPv6 transition mechanisms. European journal of scientific research, 34(1) 110-124.

Saldana, J. et al. (n.d). Model architecture for IPv4 to IPv6 migration. 

Carolyn Morgan is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in Write My Research Paper For Me services. If you need a similar paper you can place your order from custom nursing essay writing services.