Andre Yoskowitz
25 Jul 2010 17:14
The Internet currently uses IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), which uses 32-bit numbers, allowing for the availability of a total of 4 billion IP addresses.
According to experts, about 94 percent of those addresses have already been allocated, and the Internet may run out of IP addresses by 2011, at least under the current IPv4 system.
A new system, IPv6, would use 128-bit numbers, allowing for an almost infinite amount of IP addresses. So far, however, adoption has been slow.
If adoption of the new system doesn't happen soon, Google Internet evangelist Vint Cerf warns that a "black market" for IP addresses would start, taking "away from the decentralized nature of the Internet."
"Without IPv6, the Internet's expansion and innovation could be limited," also notes American Registry for Internet Numbers president and CEO John Curran. "Delaying IPv6 deployment may strain the work of Internet operators, application developers, and end users everywhere."
Google is one of few companies that already puts all its services on the IPv6 protocol, with Facebook being another notable company.
Verizon and Comcast, two of the largest ISPs, have begun testing the protocol, as well.