The address classes are the defined as a, B, C, D or E.This is however dependent on the initial bits. The total of number of addresses in IPv4 are 4 294-967-296. As for IPv6, the address is made up of 128 bit long pieces which are 16 bytes. The fundamental structure of IPv6 is 64 bits (network number) and 64 bits (host number). In most case the host portion of a given IPv6 address or at least part of it is delivered from the device's MAC address .

Address allocation

For IPv4, the address allocation was originally done using a network class. As the system's address space gets depleted, certain smaller allocation are made using Classless Inter-Domain Routing (CIDR).These allocation are however not balanced among various nations and institutions.

Address lifetime

For IPv4 the concept of address lifetime is not applicable except for the cases of addresses that are assigned...
[ View Full Essay]