IPv4 is described in RFC 79 1 issued by IETF in September of 198 1, replacing RFC 760 issued in September of 1980.
IPv4 is a connectionless protocol, which runs on the link layer (such as Ethernet) using packet switching. This protocol will do its best to transmit data packets, which means that it does not guarantee that any data packets will arrive at the destination, nor does it guarantee that all data packets will arrive in the correct order without duplication. These aspects are handled by upper layer transport protocols (such as transmission control protocol).
Extended data
Some addresses are reserved for special purposes, such as private networks (about18 million addresses) and multicast addresses (about 270 million addresses), thus reducing the number of addresses that can be routed on the Internet. With the continuous allocation of addresses to end users, the problem of exhaustion of IPv4 addresses also appears.
Address structure reconstruction based on classified network, classless inter-domain routing and network address translation significantly reduces the speed of address exhaustion. However, on February 3, 20 1 1, the main address pool of IANA was exhausted after the last five address blocks were allocated to five regional Internet registration authorities.
These restrictions stimulated the early deployment of IPv6, which is still under development and is the only long-term solution.