Panic stations! Internet addresses running out says OECD

by Stuart Corner

Friday, 16 May 2008

Page 1 of 3 ! The OECD says governments and business must "work together more effectively and urgently to meet the growing demand for Internet addresses and secure the future of the Internet economy," but the world knew a decade ago that this parlous state of affairs was inevitable: initiatives to date have clearly been inadequate. The problem is that the Internet address space available under the current protocol, IPv4, will run out real soon, 2011 according to the OECD, and the only long term solution is to transition to IPv6 which has sufficient address capacity to give every grain of sand on the planet its own unique Internet address, or something like that. The OECD has just issued a report "Economic Considerations in the Management of IPv4 and the Transition to IPv6 "  in which it claims that only 16 percent of the total IPv4 address space remained unallocated in early 2008, saying: "This situation is critical for the future of the Internet economy because all new users connecting to the Internet, and all businesses that require IP addresses for their growth, will be affected by the change from the current status of ready availability of unallocated IPv4 addresses." And while manufacturers have long built support for IPv6 into their products and global network operators like NTT have been supporting it for several years, a large scale transition will be a massive project fraught with the complexities of simultaneously supporting IPv4 and IPv6. The OECD report has been issued as input to the OECD's forthcoming OECD Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy , to be held in Seoul in mid June. It calls on Governments and business to "raise awareness of the need to start preparing now for the move to from IPv4 to IPv6 and explain to Internet Service Providers and IT professionals that the move is a commercial and social opportunity, not a financial burden...and suggests that "Governments could play a role as a large user of Internet services by stimulating demand for IPv6 through their own procurement policies and through public-private partnerships in IPv6 research and development." The consequences for governments of further procrastination are spelt out in grim detail: - Unplanned and uncontrolled implementation of IPv6 equipment into government networks could result in failures and loss of service delivery capability; - The skills shortage in the ICT arena and in particular, the IPv6 field becomes so great that the government will not be able to compete with the private sector for IPv6 skilled technical and administrative staff; - the cost of moving to IPv6 when industry and suppliers are driving the market will be significantly greater than if the planning and transition stages are undertaken in an environment of controlled progress. CONTINUED << First page <   1 2 3 Next page > Last page - Post your comment >>

 

< Next story in category		Previous story in the category >

Visitors last 30 days Suscribers

904,266 13,751