CCNA1 Assignment question

For my CCNA1 course I have been set an assignment to do alongside the exams. The scenario is that I have to write up a white paper to provide to a company the differences between IPv4 and IPv6 and why the upgrade is vital for further growth.

The first header is to write about the structure of IPv4 addresses. By this does it mean to refer to the classful format? Or is there something I'm missing? The next header is to discuss the differences between classful and classless addressing so I'm at a crossroads as to what to write about for the first header.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

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CxMarriott

If it helps at all here is what I have written already:

Differences between IPv4 and IPv6, and the transition between them.

[h=1]The structure of IPv4 addresses[/h]
IPv4 addresses have many different aspects of their structure. Each address is limited to 32 bits, split into 4 sections called Octets, formatted as such: 128.24.255.255. Each section contains 8 bits, each bit has a progressing binary value. Starting from the far-right bit, with a binary value of 1, doubling the value each time until it reaches 128. So, for example, the address previously mentioned would be set out as 10000000 00011000 11111111 11111111. The first octet is the most important as it can inform the user what the addresses purpose is.
To help determine the addresses host and it is best to first look at separating the address into two sections; the network portion, and the host portion. These can be determined by the class of the address, there are 3 main classes; A, B and C, each with their own set number of bits that are used for the host portion.
Class A is assigned to networks that require many hosts. This is due to the network only using the first octet, with the first bit always been set to 0, this means that the first octet can only reach a value of 127. This then allows for the remaining 3 to allocate host IDs. It’s also worth noting that the address prefix 0.0.0.0/0 is a reserved ID, and 127.0.0.0 is reserved for loopback addresses (0.0.0.0 and 255.0.0.0 being the respective subnets). (Microsoft, 2009) This results in there being 126 available networks, and 16,777,214 hosts for a class A network.
Class B follows this, instead of using the first two octets for the network ID, and the last two for the Host ID. The first two bits are always 10, this means that the address is in the range of 128.0.0.0, to 192.0.0.0. The remaining 14 bits allow for 16,384 networks and 65,534 hosts. Making class B suitable for larger networks.
Class C then uses three octets for the network ID, and the last for the host ID. Like the previous two classes, class C has a pre-set for the first three bits; 110. Meaning that the address can range from 192.0.0.0 to 224.0.0.0. Again, the last remaining 21 bits in the network section allows for a significant increase over class B at 2,097,152 networks, and only 254 hosts. Making class C suitable for smaller networks.
The last remaining two classes; D and E, are left for specific uses. Class D is used for multicast addresses. The pre-set bits are 1110, making the range for this class 224.0.0.0 to 240.0.0.0. Finally, class E is specifically for experimental use. With the pre-set bits set to 1111. Meaning that this class uses the last remaining address.

[h=1]Classful and Classless addressing[/h]
Classful addressing refers to the class system described in the previous section. The issue with this format is that it limited the number of addresses that can be assigned to devices on the network, as well as not sending the subnet information, but sending the entire network address (Jain, 2016). The advantages of using classful addressing are that it uses very little CPU power, it is easier to administrate and to configure. (James, 2011)
Classless addressing was introduced “in the early 1990s” (Parkhurst, 2005) due to the number of limitations that came with classful addressing. With the new classless format, the number of bits pre-set for the network section became variable instead of fixed. (Parkhurst, 2005)

TheFORCE

Have you been paying attention to the class? There is a big big fundametal issue with IPV4, and that is there are not enough IP addresses to go around. It will make your assignment a lot easier if you understand how many IPv4 addresses there are compared to how many IPv6 addresses there are.

Big hint right there.

JDMurray

Depending on how in-depth your assignment should be, you can start with the basic groundwork of IPv4:

IPv4 address space is a map of 4,294,967,296 (2³²) nodes.

IPv4 space is a two-dimensional matrix with 2¹⁶ nodes along its X and Y axes.

Each node in the map is addressed by an IPv4 address.

The first node is at address 0.0.0.0 and the last node is at address 255.255.255.255.

You can divide IPv4 space into sub networks (subnets). For example, the 2³² nodes can be divided into 256 subnets, each subnet being 2²⁴ nodes in size. This is the format used by Class A subnetting (CIDR /8 ).

In the Class A IPv4 address, the eight Most Significant Bits are the number of the subnet (0-255) and the 24 Least Significant Bits are the number of the node (0-2^24-1).

You can add some diagrams for visuals. You probably shouldn't be more detailed than your text book.