PRESSURE is mounting on governments to resolve the internet address
crisis amid fears the internet economy will stall as numbers run
out in 2010-11
Late last year, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and
Numbers (ICANN) signalled that only 700 million of the total 4.3
billion IPv4 addresses remained available for allocation. When
IPv4 was adopted nearly 30 years ago, fewer than 500 hosts were
connected to the internet, most users had technical expertise
and the network was entirely non-commercial.
Now, more than 500 million hosts are connected to the expanding
"network of networks" and 1.3 billion people have internet
access. The infrastructure now supports economic and social activities
worldwide.
Every device that connects to the internet needs a separate address,
and 30 years ago web designers assumed four billion would be ample,
The Australian reports.
Now all internet users must move to an upgraded platform - called
Internet Protocol version 6 - to access the 340 trillion-trillion-trillion
new addresses needed to connect not only billions of new users
but also the trillions of sensor devices that will require networking
as technology takes greater control of people's lives.
"IPv6 provides more addresses in cyberspace than there are
grains of sands on the world's beaches," said Viviane Reding,
EU Commissioner for the Information Society.
The growing demand for IP addresses and the cost and technical
difficulties involved in shifting to IPv6 are under discussion
at the OECD ministerial meeting on the future of the internet
economy in Seoul this week, attended by Communications Minister
Stephen Conroy.
Should we panic and start reserving as many domain names and
IP Addresses as possible? I dont think so...like most IT Systems
a shelf life is always expected and without crystal balls it's
hard to predict the rate of growth the internet has become.
When the Internet was first established on IP version 4.0 sites
like MySpace, Facebook and the plethora of personal and company
Blogs were non-existant thus the need for 340 trillion trillion
trillion seperate addresses that IPv6 will bring was not required.
So what does this mean to you and me....?
Well I wouldn't start stacking the cupboards full of Baked Bean
tins just yet, the Internet will not crash and ruin all our lives
in 2 years time, most network owners will probably find they have
existing capability that's not switched on In fact, vendors of
networking equipment have been well aware of the issue, and IPv6
capability has been built into equipment since at least 2000.
Sources
The
Australian
News
Limited
Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN)
