FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 5, 2008
The Internet is running out of numbers
Although most Web sites are recognizable by the words used in their domain names, this is just a concession for us humans. It turns out every Web address is translated into a language better understood by machines – numbers.
This underlying numeric system is called the Internet Protocol. Perhaps you’ve heard of the term IP address. This Web site, imagescape.com has an IP address of 72.32.34.12.
The prevailing Internet Protocol is version 4, (aka IPv4) and it is running out of numbers. Utilizing all the open combinations of IPv4 renders 4.3 billion unique addresses. There are currently 14% of those addresses remaining which is projected to run out by 2011.
Besides Web pages, IP addresses are needed for every machine (real and virtual) connected to the Internet worldwide. This list includes computers, routers, switches, some phones/faxes/printers, TiVos, mobile phones, cars, soon refrigerators, dishwashers and so on.
Enter IPv6. IPv6 provides a very large number of addresses – 340 unodecillion to be exact (that’s 340, followed by 36 zeros). To put that into perspective, a 2007 article in Technology Review stated that the number of IPv6 addresses is “roughly 5,000 addresses for every square micrometer of the Earth's surface.”
This week marked the first step towards adopting IPv6. Several of the 13 root nameservers are now supporting IPv6 addresses. Root nameservers are the main, authoritative address books of the Internet.
In regards to the impact of this event, it doesn’t mean much outside the heavy technology circles. At some point all new devices will support this new addressing protocol. But it is another in a series of milestones marking the tremendous impact of the Internet on our world.
