IP V6à ARE YOU READY?
PROBLEMS IN IP V4:
The Internet is running out of room. The pool of available public IP addresses is dwindling. The last blocks of IP addresses were allocated by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to the 5 regional Internet registries (RIRs) on February 3rd. The exact time when the RIRs exhaust them is up for debate, but it appears that in less than 90 days is a good guess. Fortunately, there is a solution. The problem is going to be in implementing it.
For computers to be able to communicate with one another on the Internet, they each need to have a "public" address known as an IP address. The most common analogy is to think of an IP address as a telephone number. The current IP addressing method, known as version 4, uses 32-bit numbers and appear in the format xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx.
Using this number scheme allows for approximately 4 billion unique addresses, but for various reasons, such as non-routable IPs, only 3.7 billion of them are usable. Back when this format was created, it was inconceivable that there would be 4 billion devices that would need their own IP address. Fast forward to today and it is not unusual for individuals to have multiple Internet ready devices. Look at the proliferation of smart phones and tablets alone and it is easy to understand why 4 billion is not enough. Thanks to a process used by routers called Network Address Translation (NAT) we have been able to get around this limit for some time. NAT allows multiple computers to use one public IP address. It is the reason you are able to connect multiple devices to the single connection your ISP provides to your home.
SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM :
The knight in shining armor that will save us is IP version 6. It uses 128 bit addressing which will allow for 340 undecillion (3.4 x 10/38) unique addresses. How many is that?
- 50 octillion addresses for each of the 6.5 Billion people on earth
- We could assign an IPV6 address to EVERY ATOM ON THE SURFACE OF THE EARTH, and still have enough addresses left to do another 100+ earths.
- Every atom in the human body could have an IPv6 address
These estimates are not accurate. But we have a system that will handle the IP address shortage and then some. Most newer devices support the new protocol. The problem lies in how to merge "legacy" systems with this architecture. Most ISPs have been very slow in implementing the dual-stack protocol which is designed to bridge this gap. Then there is the consumer side of the equation. With very few exceptions, home routers do not support it.
Internet service providers Verizon, Time Warner, and Comcast are beginning to update their network infrastructure to handle the transition. Web services providers will also need to enable IPv6 on their web sites for there to be a smooth transition. Tech goliaths Google and Facebook already support IPv6. More are sure to follow.
If you are searching for another cause to celebrate, add June 8th to your calendar. It has been designated as World IPv6 Day. For 24 hours major sites around the globe will be enabling IPv6 to perform a "stress test" of networks and work out any bugs.
