(PUBLISHED IN “O GLOBO” on 02/03/2011)
RIO – Icann, the body that regulates the distribution of IP (Internet protocol) addresses, informed this Thursday that the last IPv4 addresses, the current version of the protocol, have run out. The last five address blocks, totaling 83.9 million, were allocated in each of the five Regional Internet Registries (RIR). The end of IPv4 numbers, already expected
some time, reinforces the urgency of migrating to IPv6, the most recent version of the protocol that makes possible a 4 billion times greater number of addresses. Otherwise, it will no longer be
possible to connect new devices to the network.
- This is one of the most important days in the history of the internet. A set of more than 4 billion internet addresses came to an end this morning – said Rod Beckstrom, head of ICANN, at a press conference in Florida, in the United States.
For now, the Internet user will not have any problems accessing the Internet.
– It all depends on the technology used by the Internet operator and the user. Some companies can update the user's modem software remotely. But the equipment can be changed if it is too old and does not support the protocol, preventing access to the Internet,” said the coordinator of the Nic.br IPv6.br project, Antonio Moreiras, to Reuters.
In Brazil, the Internet Management Committee (CGI) forecasts that inventories will last until 2012. IPv4 should coexist with IPv6 for 15 to 20 years, until one standard replaces the other, said NIC.br.
In the US, the deadline is shorter: three to nine months, according to John Curran, CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers (Arin), one of the five RIRs. According to PC World, the urgency of the situation will imply new rules for manufacturers of devices with internet access: instead of continuing to inform Arin of the need for addresses for the next 12 months, they will now have to do this every three.
Most operating systems now support the new protocol. Windows, for example, has already met the standard since its 1998 version.
IPv4, developed at a time when the Internet was restricted to military installations, has 32-bit addresses and supports around 4 billion IP addresses, or 2 raised to the 32nd power.
With the proliferation of devices with an internet connection, this number is already insufficient (only 5% of the total remain) and there is great pressure for a migration to IPv6, created in the 90s and which uses 128 bits and provides 4 billion of times as many addresses as the previous version – or 2 raised to the 128th power.
For comparison purposes, if IPv4 addressing were the size of a tennis ball, the mathematical space of IPv6 would be one equal to that of an astronomically gigantic ball, with a diameter 595,000 times greater than the distance between Earth and the Andromeda Galaxy. An example IPv4 address is 172.16.254.1, while an IPv6 address is 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:8:1.
Technology companies are reluctant to adopt IPv6 for a few reasons. In addition to economic issues, experts claim that most of the available security tools and other types of services still do not work with the new version of the protocol.
During the move, some servers will need to be reconfigured and their structure changed, if they are very old, which may require spending on infrastructure and training of the internet providers' teams.
Demi Getschko, CEO of NIC.br, had already touched on the subject in an interview with GLOBO in 2005:
- The expansion of IPV6 requires changing the entire infrastructure, which takes time. There are lines and routers running IPV4. If you launch IPV6 without great standardization, you create islands that don't speak to each other.
World IPv6 Day is scheduled for June 8, network giants – Google, Facebook and Yahoo, for example – will carry out a test sponsored by the Internet Society (Isoc) to see if the new version of IP supports traffic. At Campus Party Brasil 4 IPv6 addresses were also tested.
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