IP address shortage 'looming'
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Internet pioneer Vint Cerf says IP addresses are running out...
The pool of IP addresses, the unique number given to every device that goes online, is likely to run out by 2010 or 2011, says internet guru Vint Cerf.
According to a report on the BBC website, the next generation of IP addresses, known as IPv6, has been awaiting roll out for ten years. The deployment of the new system has never looked so urgent as Cerf, who is about to step down as chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), warns that “there is a risk of [new devices] not being able to get online.”
The current system, IPv4, provides four billion addresses and was expected to last long into the next decade but the shortage is being put down to a higher than expected number of devices going online. The new system should satisfy consumers’ apparently insatiable appetites for internet enabled devices, as it will create 340 trillion trillion trillion addresses.
While modern computers, servers, routers and other online devices are able to use the new system, it has yet to be implemented by internet service providers. Cerf says this is down to supply and demand, and as yet customers simply have not demanded that the new system be put in place.
Further reading
Icann retains Internet control to 2011
Cold war web
