The IP-Acolypse is Upon Us, it's Time to Make the IP Switch

On February 3, 2011, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the organization that manages the global IP address pool, allocated the last blocks of IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) Internet addresses to the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs): AfriNIC, APNIC, ARIN, LACNIC, and RIPE NCC. The RIRs will eventually allocate these IP addresses to large network operators in their respective regions, including enterprise organizations and Internet Service Providers (ISPs). Essentially, with less than 3% of the IPv4 address pool available among the RIRs, the remaining addresses will soon be exhausted and IPv4’s successor, IPv6, will officially take its place.

When the Internet first began using IPv4 in 1981, the 4.3 billion potential web addresses it provided seemed more than enough to accommodate the public Internet. However, due to the Internet’s explosive growth and the proliferation of Internet-enabled devices coming online such as smartphones, netbooks, laptops, tablets, etc., it has proven to be insufficient in keeping up with demand. IPv6 stands to solve this problem by providing an exponential increase in IP addresses, 2^128 or 340,282,366,920,938,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 of them to be exact, which should be more than enough to support the foreseeable growth of the Internet.

While IPv6 was created in 1998 in anticipation for the depletion of IPv4 addresses, most ISPs and software vendors waited until 2008 to begin their IPv6 deployment. Now, in 2011, the first real test of the IPv6 network will occur tomorrow, June 8th, on what is known as World IPv6 Day. The Internet Society (ISOC) is sponsoring a 24-hour global testing of IPv6 content enablement that will give web companies such as Google, Facebook and Yahoo the ability to test drive the network to see what it can handle and what still needs to be done. The goal of World IPv6 Day is to motivate organizations across the industry – Internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies – to prepare their services for IPv6 to help ensure a successful transition and better equip businesses, and the world, for the switch.

Though IPv4 and IPv6 will run parallel for quite some time, businesses are encouraged to begin the transition to avoid any potential software, router or server support issues that may occur with the IPv6 network. 3D Corporation can assist your business in determining whether your network is IPv6 compatible and help you take the appropriate steps to ensure a smooth transition. Please visit our website at http://www.3dcorp.us/, email us at info@3dcorp.us, or call (360) 671-4906 for more information.

References: http://www.worldipv6day.org/; “IP Address Pools”, arin.net; “IPv4 & IPv6: A Short Guide”, mashable.com; “Are You Ready for the Great IPv6 Migration?”, watchguardsecuritycenter.com; IPv4 address exhaustion, Wikipedia.org