14 DAY TRIAL // Vint Cerf, one of the founding fathers of the net, who played a key role in the development of the protocols (like the IPv4 that is currently the most used IP version in the world) which underpin the global internet has recently said: "There is a risk of not being able to get online." He added: "The rate of consumption of available remaining IPv4 numbers appears to be on track to run out in 2010/11."
The IPv4 system can only provide about four billion addresses but the explosion in the number of devices which go online has led to a potential shortage in this numbers and here the concern begins. Cerf added: "To be clear - if we finally exhaust the IPv4 pool it doesn't mean the internet stops working" but it does mean that a risk of not being able to go online exists." The stated scenario does seem quite gloom but fortunately there is also a solution and apparently it's a pretty old one too. A new IP system, that's called IPv6, has been awaiting roll out for 10 years now but has not yet managed to impose itself.
Although modern computers, servers, routers and other online devices are able to use IPv6, internet service providers have yet to implement the system. Mr Cerf said that: "The reason they haven't - which is quite understandable - is that customers haven't asked for it yet," and also "my job, whether with my Icann hat on or not (Mr Cerf is currently the chairman of Icann, the body which oversees the net, but he has announced that he is about to step down in the near future), is to persuade them to ask for it". Unless the IPv6 is switched on in the coming years, some devices might not be able to go online, Mr Cerf has also warned. IPv6 is the perfect solution, because it will create 340 trillion trillion separate addresses which are surely enough to satisfy the demand for decades to come. "The appreciation of the importance of getting IPv6 into operation is very much more visible than before.", "I'm anticipating in 2008 a substantial increase of use of IPv6, introduced in parallel with IPv4". Cerf commented regarding IPv6.
In the end, it's clear that there's absolutely no need to worry but one complicating factor is that IPv6 and IPv4 are not compatible, which means that ISPs will have to run the two systems in parallel and thus will add costs that are going to be supported by the consumer. Already in Asia, the governments in China, Korea and Japan have begun to roll out the IPv6 and the European Union is reviewing methods to encourage the IPv6 adoption.