By sinha on 9, July, 2008 | Channel: Indian Startups

Doomsday for Internet by 2011 – Where are the IP addresses?

1,273rd day from now, there will be a major web chaos. The Internet will run out of IP addresses.

More than 85 % of the available IP addresses have already been allocated and the rest will run out by 2011, according to a prediction by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).

Essentially, IP address is a unique 32-bit number that identifies the location of your computer

on a network. The current IPV4′s infrastructure was laid way back in early 80s keeping 4 billion addresses in mind. Things have multiplied since then and now we are left with only few machines!

What about IPV6?

IPv6 supports 2128 (about 3.4×1038) addresses, or approximately 5×1028 addresses for each of the roughly 6.5 billion (6.5×109) people alive today. In a different perspective, this is 252 addresses for every star in the known universe – more than ten billion billion billion times as many addresses as IPv4 supported.[source]

The challenge with IPV6 is the backward (in)compatibility of devices as well as lack of widespread adoption – neither ISPs nor manufacturers are investing enough in the infrastructure.

Another prediction: Internet can overshoot the supply by 2010 (thanks to rich media sites).

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    • comment(s) on Doomsday for Internet by 2011 – Where are the IP addresses?

    3 Responses to Doomsday for Internet by 2011 – Where are the IP addresses?

    1. Mahesh says:
      July 9, 2008 at 10:38 AM

      There is a project called KAME that was a joint effort of six organizations in Japan which aimed to provide a free IPv6 and IPsec (for both IPv4 and IPv6) protocol stack.

      http://www.kame.net, here if ur HTTP uses IPv6 you can see dancing kame.

      There is also a DANGER in DNS poisioning: http://www.kb.cert.org/vuls/id/800113.

      There are lot of research is going on to improve the internet.

      NATting was introduced to cope up with growing IPv4 websites in order to not to shift to IPv6 [which will cost], even after introduction of NATting, IPv4 will exhaust. Its time to get to IPv6 [Lots of serious meetings, research is going on]

      Reply
    2. Raseel says:
      July 15, 2008 at 12:26 AM

      I think this IPv4 exhaustion issue might be slightly over-rated.
      What do you mean by backporting IP addresses ?
      Ok, I admit a lot of software will have to be re-written , but most of it already has been and if it actually turns out that 2011 might be the “exhausion year” I think 2010 should be a good enough time for the migration.

      Reply
    3. Planet X Nibiru 2012 says:
      July 11, 2010 at 10:30 AM

      I personally believe it is all a giant cover up.

      Reply