Unicast v. Multicast

The next step in my upgrade is to get a handle on the current state of IPV6.

There are fewer IP addresses than people. The world exhausted its supply of IPV4 addresses; so the world needs to do something.

Unfortunately, instead of extending IPV4 by a few magnitudes, the powers that be designed IPV6 to replace IPV4.

The ugly side of this change is that IPV6 was designed from the top down to favor large publishers over small and individual publishers.

IPV4 was built on a unicast model. In this model, client PCs create a connection with the host server and pull down the desired information. The individual (and consequently the individual who owns the client) has greater control.

IPv6 is built around multicasting (aka, broadcasting). The IPv6 will be optimized for large centralized concerns that seek to pump out volumes of information to client minions.

I prefer the unicast model to the broadcast model as it encourages people to be a bit more deliberative in their intake of media. The unicast framework was also somewhat of an equalizers since the cost of getting information off a small local server was basically the same as getting it from a huge firm (Huge firms can realize economies of scale, but are not favored by the network structure itself.).

I hope that internet users resist the multicast features of IPv6. But the powers that be are powerful and they prefer a top-down controlled society to a free society and are adept at getting their way.