Net Addresses Running Out
The group that manages the Internet's address system said Tuesday that the Internet is running out of unallocated addresses that use the old IPv4 protocol. Internet protocol addresses are the unique identifiers that allow computers connected to the Internet to communicate with each other. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers said the available number of IPv4 addresses has dipped below 10 percent. As a result, ICANN is urging the Internet community to do more to spur the adoption of the new IPv6 protocol.
"For the global Internet to grow and prosper without limitation, we need to encourage the rapid widespread adoption of the IPv6 protocol," ICANN President and CEO Rod Beckstrom said in a statement.
Given that IPv4 addresses will eventually run out, IPv6 was designed to deal with the growing demand for IP addresses. According to ICANN, there are "300 trillion trillion trillion possible IPv6 addresses." But Internet users have been slow to adopt IPv6 for a number of reasons, including the increased cost in time and money to move to an IPv6 system; a need for bridging technology to make IPv4 and IPv6 systems compatible; and a lack of demand, according to an ICANN fact sheet on the issue. The document added that "a widespread shift to IPv6 will only occur once the cost of running on IPv4 starts rising due to scarcity."
ICANN said technical experts have estimated that it will take a couple years to deplete the pool of available IPv4 addresses, since many blocks of those addresses have been allocated to groups that have yet to distribute them to the public. Still, Beckstrom noted that "IPv6 is the future of the Internet."
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