InformationWeek says IPv4 addresses will run out by the end of 2011. The plethora of mobile devices and an increase in Internet services to the home have led to a shortage of Internet addresses, which could run out by the end of 2011 according to InformationWeek. “We now face an exhaustion of IPv4 addresses,” Lawrence Strickling, administrator of the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), said in the meeting, Reuters reported.  There’s only room for 4.3 billion IP addresses and the U.S. owns more than 90 percent of public IP addresses globally. The U.S. has used about 94.5 percent of it’s public IP addresses.

The recent surge in tablet computers like the Apple iPad and Research in Motion Blackberry smartphones are depleting the supply of available addresses.  The remaining 5.5 percent of the IPv4 addresses will be distributed among the Regional Internet Registries by next summer Reuters reported. New IP-based technologies such as LTE and WiMax have also contributed to the dwindling number of IPv4 addresses. M2M devices and smart technologies in consumer products like refrigerators, dishwashers and vehicles also decrease the number of addresses available. “Fortunately, IPv6 will support 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses,” Strickling is  quoted in Reuters, and appealed to businesses to widely roll out and integrate IPv6.

The reason is that IPv6 is a much longer address, but it makes up a lot more possible numbers, said Todd Day, industry analyst, Mobile & Wireless Communications, Frost & Sullivan. “It’s similar to a phone number with many digits, so it’s like having a longer phone number.” Switching to IPv6 could be costly for businesses and the technology might not integrate well with what they are using. “Ultimately you have equipment that has to be replaced in order to support IPv6, you have software changes and upgrades in other pieces of equipment and testing and actual implementation costs,” Day said.

In spite of the challenges, the new protocol has its advantages, he said. “There are definitely a lot of benefits to IPv6,” Day said. “In the bigger picture it allows for more security, video and voice streaming and better quality of service.”

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This is not a U.S. specific problem as InformationWeek would have their readers believe. This is a world-wide problem. John Curran President and CEO of ARIN pointed out in the article, “some other countries have already set their IPv4 depletion / IPv6 adoption plans.” Of course not in the US, there are so many other important issues to for the Feds to worry about, like the noise level of TV commercials.

This gadget has been developed by Takashi Arano, Intec NetCore