Are We Running Out of Room on the Internet?
Article by William Huebner
A recent news report snagged my attention and spurred me to find out more about running out of room on the internet. In an interview with Sam Bucholtz the co-founder of Casaba Security (a team of security pioneers who research, develop and implement solutions to internet security problems), he told viewers that reports that we are getting very close to running out of addresses for all the mobile devices we are now using is true. The use of cell phones, Blackberries, iPads, iPods, laptop computers and all the other devices that we want to connect with the internet, has gotten us to the point that there are only about 2% of the potential addresses under the current internet protocol still available. So we are running out of room on the internet.
Internet addresses are needed to allow all these devices to talk with one another. The current internet protocol is based on a 32bit value which limits the total number of devices that can "talk" or be connected to the internet to 4 billion.
The internet protocol currently in use is the Internet Protocol version 4, or IPv4. Plans are underway to move to a new protocol, Internet Protocol version 6.
According to Wikipedia, this first publicly used version (IPv4), provided addressing capability of about 4 billion addresses and was thought to be sufficient in the early stages of the Internet. The explosive growth and worldwide proliferation of networks was unexpected and has led to the current situation. By the late 1980's, it became clear that methods had to be developed to conserve address space. In the early 1990s, even after a redesign of the addressing system, it became apparent that this would not suffice to prevent IPv4 address exhaustion. Further changes to the Internet infrastructure were needed.
Plans are being developed and a great deal of infrastructure is already in place to move to a new internet protocol that expands the number of addressed by 4 times. This is Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) and will tremendously expand the number of devices supported. Every person on earth could have multiple devices and we would never come close to using all available addresses.
In February 2011 the last blocks of free IPv4 addresses were assigned. Many free addresses, however, still remain in most assigned blocks and will continue to be allocated for some time. All major operating systems in use in commercial, business, and home consumer environments have implemented IPv6, but it is not backwards compatible with IPv4. This might be better understood with an example. When a new version of a computer program comes out, it will be able to use files developed in the older version. This is not possible with IPv4 and Ipv6. Ipv6 creates what amounts to a parallel, independent network and exchanging traffic between the two networks requires special translator gateways. However, modern computer operating systems are capable of implementing dual-protocol software for transparent access to both networks.
As we run out of room on the internet, the content about the new internet protocol needs to be communicated. To test what will happen, the Internet Society is supporting World IPv6 Day, an event organized by the Internet Society and several large content providers to test public IPv6 deployment. The driving force for the event is to evaluate the real world effects of the IPv6. The event will be held on June 8, 2011 and is also known as Test Drive Day.
Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Cisco, Verizon, Yahoo and Bing will participate, among others and will offer their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour "test drive". The goal of the Test Drive Day is to motivate organizations across the industry - Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies - to ready their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 addresses run out.
Changing over to IPv6 is very likely to be expensive and complicated. A similar situation recently occurred with the transition to digital TV. For several years digital television was available along with analog with limited content. As interest and content grew, TV stations began broadcasting both analog and digital programming. People began purchasing digital TVs. The move to all digital required new TVs, converters, adapters, etc., and the move has been made although it was a bit expensive and confusing for some people. This IPv6 Test Day will offer similar simultaneous broadcasting in both protocols.
It appears we can expect a move over to the new protocols in the near future as we run out of room on the internet. A crisis may not be imminent, but there are not sufficient internet addresses to support the expanding mobile communications we are now demanding.
The new protocols will correct the problem, but will likely present new challenges, costs and opportunities to running out of room on the internet.
I am excited to be connecting with people who are like-minded. My main interest is in cell phone advertising, especially mobile advertising and mobile media. Mobile phone advertising is the wave of the future and mobile ads in particular. Many a mobile ad will create a mobile market franchise and we are just entering that age. Where the internet and email was 8-10 years ago, advertising on mobile devices is now. We have entered a truly mobile market economy.
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