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Happy World IPv6 Day!

30 years ago, the Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) was standardized and the concept of the Internet was introduced. 23 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee created the World Wide Web. Today, we celebrate and welcome the implementation of IPv6.

IPv6 is the next-generation IP address standard intended to supplement and eventually replace the IPv4 protocol most Internet services use to interact on the Internet today. The new system is necessary to prevent the Internet from running out of available addresses for new devices. Each Internet-enabled device, such as a computer, tablet, or smartphone, needs its own IP address to connect to the Internet.

IPv4 has a 32-bit address space, meaning the number of total IP addresses is limited to approximately 4.3 billion, a space that has reached its limit with over a billion Internet users and billions of Internet-connected devices. With the new IPv6, there are a massively larger number of addresses available by using 128-bit addressing.

You may hear the tag (News - Alert) line, “This time it is for real.” The Internet Society had a trial IPv6 Day last year, providing a coordinated 24-hours “test flight” of the new Internet Protocol. Websites and Internet service providers such as Google (News - Alert), Facebook, Yahoo, Akamai and Limelight Networks joined together with more than 1,000 other participating websites for a successful global-scale trial. 

Today, however marks the official launch of IPv6. Cisco (News - Alert) predicts that by 2016, 18.9 billion Internet-devices will be online. Switching to IPv6 means trillions of possible addresses can now be made. To ensure a smooth transition and make sure devices do not stop working, both systems will work side-by-side for the next few years.

IPv6 is not backwards compatible with IPv4. Users who start getting IPv6 addresses from their ISP can access only websites and services that are on IPv6-compliant infrastructure.

 

Edited by Jamie Epstein

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