So it has some limitations that IPV6 was designed to deal with. IPV4, the first non-experimental version of the internet protocol and the cornerstone of the internet as we know it, has only received relatively minor revisions since its original development in the late вЂ70s when the digital lifestyle we enjoy today with all of these connected devices all around us was basically science fiction. It seems pretty straightforward, right? Well, actually weвЂ™ve got a small problem at the moment. This function is mostly performed by routers and itвЂ™s the equivalent of your parcel вЂ“ letвЂ™s say itвЂ™s heading from the West Coast to the US to France, reaching a courier hub in Chicago, where the decision gets made to forward it to New York, then Paris, instead of letting it make stopovers in Brisbane, New Delhi, Moscow and Toronto along the way.

Number two is routing or predicting and selecting the best possible path for data transmission across network boundaries. The internet protocol dictates the header format of a datagram or packet similar to the label on a package as well as the way the data payload is nested within it to improve efficiency. Ideas like putting the return address inside the box for better personal security or sending out six of the same thing to everyone on a city block to ensure that at least one of them will reach the intended target may be well-intentioned but would create a ton of unnecessary overhead, leading to inefficiency. Imagine if everyone on earth just came up with their own idea of how they should go about sending an item to someone. It has got two main jobs and for both of them, an easy comparison can be made to the mail system. Video transcript: The internet protocol is the main set of rules that governs the exchange or transmission of data between devices on separate networks.

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