IPv6 comes calling, Is anyone there?

oBANGALORE, INDIA: Internet is no longer 'out there', but is an integral part of everybody's lives today.

Earlier, it was more of PCs and desktops kind of experience, whereas, today with the 3Gs and 4Gs making their entry into this most dynamic telecom market, it opens up a lot more options to access Internet on the go.

Also Read: IPv6 roll out must go before 3Gs: Vish Iyer

Going forward, mobile Internet will be the call of the day. However, then do we have enough Internet addresses or protocols to sustain this growth?

To begin with, IP addresses are a set of technical rules that define how computers communicate over a network. There are currently two versions: IP version 4 (IPv4) and IP version 6 (IPv6).

Over the metro, instead of individual computers or devices, IP addresses talk to each other. So, if we run short of IP addresses then devices will be unable to communicate to each other.

Thus, the apprehension of running out of IP addresses does make sense. Two months back IPV4 count stood at less than 10 percent, and today the same stands below eight percent, thanks to the ever growing Internet space.

Paul Wilson, director general, APNIC, says: "The next three years will see a change in the Internet. With a rebuilding of local economies we will see a return to a greater level of pressure for further growth in the Internet space, particularly in mobile services and the emergence of ubiquitous Internet environments. However, it will not be possible to sustain this growth using IPv4."

Source: ARIN

IPv4 has been there for almost three decades now. Introduced in 1981, this first version of Internet Protocol is still widely used, and accounts for most of today’s Internet traffic. Then came Ipv6 in 1999.

John Curran, president and CEO, American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), says, "IPv6 provides a much larger pool of IP addresses than the older version, IPv4. Engineers designed IPv6 in the 1990s knowing IPv4 address space would deplete. In other words, IPv6 solves a problem that hasn’t fully developed yet, as there is still IPv4 address space available. Today, network operators realize IPv4 depletion is imminent and they must deploy IPv6 to connect new customers in the coming years."

The major difference between IPv4 and IPv6 is the number of IP addresses they have. On one hand where IPv4 uses 32 bits addresses ( i.e. 4,294,967,296), IPv6 provides 128 bits, i.e. 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374, 607,431,768,211,456 (that is a hell lot of numbers!). IPv6 actually quadruples the number of network address from that of IPv4.

All said, IPv6 hasn't still seen the traction it should have, even after a decade and irrespective of the hue and cry made about the fast depleting IPV4 lot. Experts say that the IPv4 lot won't last till the end of 2011. And yet, till date, only about .01 percent of the global IPv6 address pool has been allocated.

"We expect to see the transition to IPv6 take a prominent role, and it may be possible that in 2010, the number of IPv6 allocations exceed the number of IPv4 address allocations for the first time," Wilson notes.daran