SubscribeTo the list of dwindling worldwide resources add Internet addresses. According to experts, the nearly 4.5 billion current addresses aren’t enough, only six percent of available addresses are left, and the Internet will run out of addresses by sometime late next year.
Three main factors are behind the upcoming shortage. One is the explosion in web access from multiple devices for each user, primarily in developed countries. Each of those smartphones, laptops, tablets, desktops and other devices that access the web require a different IP, or Internet protocol, address. And the demand for device addresses is increasing rapidly, with TVs, game consoles, even automobiles offering web-browsing capability.
Trillions of Addresses for Each Person
A second factor is a rapidly growing user base in developing countries, such as Brazil, India or China. Many of users there access the web through mobile devices, which means the device-per-user ratio in those countries is also likely to increase rapidly.
And, third, the Internet is becoming the communications network for non-user-based equipment, such as smart electricity grids, sensors, RFIDs and smart houses.
But all is not lost. The current Net uses Internet protocol version four (IPv4), which dates back to 1980 and a time when 4.5 billion addresses seemed like a lot. A newer technology, IPv6, utilizes 128-bit addresses, instead of IPv4′s 32-bit, and IPv6 proponents say the new technology could offer — if needed — a vast number of addresses that should keep humanity happy until the sun burns out.
Some experts say IPv6 could provide four billion addresses for each person on Earth. But Dave Evans, Cisco’s chief technologist for its Internet business solutions group, has said the actual number is closer to “50 thousand trillion trillion addresses per person.”
In addition to zillions of new addresses, IPv6 brings other improvements, including in routing, network auto-configuration,…
Via NewsFactor
Yacine.org: The Internet Is Running Out of Addresses Under IPv4 http://bit.ly/cbtyRx
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