February 22, 2008
IP addresses gone by 2010. IPV6 can’t help if not fully implemented
Quite a few of us remember the fear mongering surrounding the Y2K date roll over problem that was over played to sensational proportions. IT management recalls being forced to spend billions to remediate what was a non-problem in many cases. These memories may be contributing factors to the general apathy for implementing IPV6 to provide additional address space that Could turn into a real crisis.
The headline issue is address space: with its 32-bit field, there can be something over four billion IP addresses on the same network. At the time it was designed, that seemed like enough for everything you could ever want to do on a network. Now, even with various ways to reuse common addresses on subnets, it’s grossly inadequate. There are, after all, something like three billion mobile phones alone in use in the world.
So in 1996, a new version IPv6, was created. This has enough addresses for the entire universe; the idea was that as it got adopted, first in the backbones and then out to the edges of the network, enough IP nodes would move across to ease the address crunch and, in time, allow IPv4 to quietly fade away, like black and white television in the face of colour.
More on IP addresses gone by 2010. IPV6 can’t help if not fully implemented
Filed under IPV6 by Garry King
Sprint is readying their network for IPV6 ahead of the 2008 mandate. This could be just an intelligently forward looking component of a routine life cycle upgrade. They could be gearing up to take advantage of being ahead of the pack to secure more government contracts. It could also be preparation for the massive volumes of new wireless users.
