Forum Discussion

dgcarter's avatar
dgcarter
Dialled in
16 years ago

IPv6 support on Virgin media

Does anyone know whether (and if so when) Virgin plan to implement IPv6 on its network?
17
gilgongo's avatar
gilgongo
Dialled in
9 years ago

What advantages does IPv6 have over IPv4 for the domestic broadband user? 

Morgaine's avatar
Morgaine
Superfast
9 years ago
gilgongo wrote:

What advantages does IPv6 have over IPv4 for the domestic broadband user? 

Domestic broadband users come in two varieties, non-technical and technical, and the answer differs a bit for the two groups.  I'll assume that your question referred to the average non-technical broadband end user.  It's a good question to ask.  Here's a shortlist of benefits that IPv6 would bring to non-technical users, deliberately leaving out the technical reasons for them since those are of no interest to end users.  (The technical explanations are available in the technical literature such as RFCs.)

Benefits of IPv6 for non-technical END USERS of IP networking, starting with Optimist1's point:

  1. Internet expansion will continue despite IPv4 addresses running out.
  2. All protocols can work cleanly over IPv6, unlike the breakage on IPv4.
  3. IPv6 "just works" without user setup, has great autoconfiguration.
  4. As many public IP addresses as you want for IoT or other devices on IPv6.
  5. Safer because IP-level security is built into IPv6 as standard, not optional.
  6. Adding IPv6 lets you see the whole Internet, not just the IPv4 part.
  7. New quality of service features for stutter-free video or gaming.
  8. Faster networking by design for a better all-round user experience.

Each of these benefits has a technical reason for which the corresponding improvements were added to IPv6 by design to improve on IPv4. The above benefits are available to everyone, not just to IPv6-aware experts, and non-technical users don't need to understand the details to enjoy the benefits.

I should point out that that's not the end of the list by any means, but it requires mention of a couple of technical details to understand why there are many more benefits for end users in store.  The key to it is the better reachability and protocol transparency of IPv6, which means that a whole new area of protocols and applications will arise which can only work effectively on IPv6.  Networking people know this instinctively, but it's hard to get across to those who lack the necessary background.  Nevertheless, they will benefit immeasureably, as it'll bring a quantum leap in the power of end-user Internet applications.