IPv4 vs IPv6: Is the Internet really running out of space?

Every six months or so, we see a bevy of articles that seemingly implying that unless we all upgrade to a new Internet protocol called IPv6, the Internet will "run out of space" and businesses will no longer be able to function.

As a strategic technology consulting company, clients often approach us for advice and assistance with technology related issues. So for those interested, here are our thoughts and insights on "the Internet is running out of space" issue.

The Internet is Not Running out of Space: IPv4 and IPv6 Explained

First off, the Internet is not exactly running out of space, meaning that everything currently connected will continue to function just fine. Instead, we are running out of unique addresses that allow the "Internet" to connect to new networks and some new devices because there will not be enough addresses for them. There are many short-term fixes, although in the long term a new addressing system will be necessary.

The difference is that new devices will still be able to connect online, but setting up new unique networks may be more challenging without a long-term fix. A quick look at our current addressing protocol, IPv4, might help explain the need for an expanded system.

Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) was developed in 1981 and has approximately 4.3 billion different possible addresses, which are given to networks and some devices as a way to identify each device location online. These addresses are how a computer in Japan knows how to send information to a computer in Europe. At the time IPv4 was developed, sending any information was slow and so addresses were kept fairly small (32-bit segments) to help speed data transfers, and because nobody imagined the Internet would need more than a few billion addresses.

However, as the number of connected networks grow, the need for new addresses grows, leading to an eventual shortage of new numbers. There are a few ways to work around this, however the cleanest long-term solution is a new addressing system, which is called IPv6 (don’t ask what happened to IPv5).

IPv6 actually helps solve a couple problems. First, it is designed to be the last needed addressing system we’ll "ever" need by providing a huge number of possible addresses, using 128 bit addresses. In fact, it will provide so many addresses that it could assign 50 billion addresses to each person on the planet. Or in other words, a few Trillion addresses for every cell in your body, for each person on the planet.

With the increased number of connected devices, unique IP addresses can be important, as each person today generally owns multiple Internet-enabled devices, including Smartphones, computers, gaming systems, home monitoring systems, medical devices, and more. As time progresses, we will see an increasing number of connected devices, all of which will require a unique address or space on an existing network.

The biggest question is what will happen when we run out of IPv4 address this year, and how will it impact Internet users? For most businesses and consumers, nothing will actually happen and business will continue as usual. This is because most businesses and consumers use a technique called "Network Address Translation" (NAT) which allows a single IP address to be shared by a larger number of computers. It is common now for Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to put customers onto a NAT addressing system unless they pay extra for a unique IP.

Even though the Internet will continue to function pretty normally even once all the IPv4 addresses have been allocated, it becomes an issue of long-term growth and simplicity. Current workarounds are fairly messy and become quickly complicated, whereas IPv6 is a fairly straightforward solution. Unfortunately the transition to IPv6 will cause many short-term problems and challenges, which is a major disincentive for companies push for it.

The Consumer and Industry Impact

People have long foreseen the limitations of IPv4 and have been working on implementing a solution. In fact, IPv6 has been around as a standard since 1996, although actual implementation has been a slow work in progress, and various revisions have since occurred. Even so, less than 1% of businesses are IPv6 ready and there is still disagreement on what IPv6 should even include in the standard.

For most consumers and businesses, especially small and medium-sized businesses, the impact will be small or not noticeable. This is because your business most likely uses an existing ISP (internet service provider), and that ISP handles most of the hardware and services that will need to be upgraded.

Not to pass off responsibility, but if this is the case for your business, then there is nothing you need to do (or can do, really) to transition to IPv6. Most likely, you will only need to update your operating system and Internet browser on your computers, which you should be doing regularly anyways. However, at worst you may also need to rework some of the internal routing systems as IPv6 currently does not currently support NAT connections (it makes NAT unnecessary, though many people want to keep some type of NAT-type support in IPv6, so that may change), which may require purchasing new routers and/or servers, but otherwise the impact should be fairly insignificant.

As it stands now, most Internet connections don’t actually require a unique IP address, and instead are able to exist within a network. For example, your business may have a single unique public IP address which is given by your ISP, and which is shared throughout your company. Each computer does not need its own public IP address and instead uses the single public IP address when communicating with the outside world.

A similar process occurs when you link many devices through your home network. For example, if you have a smart thermostat, security system, computers, and an iPad™ all running off your home router, you still will only have a single public IP address for that network. In this case, most of the upgrading and changing will be done by your ISP, rather than internally.

In other words, even though the IPv6 transition will have large implications for Internet growth in general, it will have little impact on individual users even if transition does not fully complete for a few years after IPv4 addresses run out.

On the other hand, larger businesses and companies that depend heavily on the Internet and networked software may have other unique challenges, which may require upgrading hardware or redesigning some software to be IPv6 compatible (especially peer-to-peer data sharing software). Of these, only approximately 1% are properly prepared for the IPv6 transition, and they may suffer delays or outages if they fail to properly upgrade their systems.

Government impact

The biggest challenge for the IPv6 transition will be governments. Private businesses can usually avoid the problem because of their increased agility and ability to choose from multiple options that fit their costs and needs. However, governments tend to run and maintain their own network infrastructure and are hesitant to use third-party options.

This means that governments and government organizations need to update their IT infrastructure in order to be IPv6 compliant, which can be a big challenge for many budget-stricken agencies. Local and federal governments have been working to slowly update and upgrade to IPv6 compatible systems, however most agencies have a lack of experience or man-power to deal with the inevitable issues that will arise during the transition phase.

For citizens, this may be simply an inconvenience as some online public services may not be readily available, or it may mean that key systems will become unreliable until the transition is complete. Unfortunately, IPv4 and IPv6 are not entirely cross-compatible meaning that if one organization upgrades to IPv6 only, then it may have trouble communicating with some IPv4 networks. The default is to have both an IPv4 and IPv6 network; however justifying the cost of duplication is often difficult, especially under budget constraints.

Moving Forward

In the years of transition between IPv4 and IPv6, there will be a lot of spotty issues and errors that are caused by incompatibilities between the two protocols. There are some workaround to prevent problems, but those usually default back to IPv4, which will create its own set of problems. Ideally, we could all just flip a switch and make everything IPv6 simultaneously. However, in reality companies are hesitant to be the first to switch to IPv6, which obviously causes its own problems as very few people are actually switching.

For example, Google™ is IPv6 ready, but they have delisted most of their IPv6 addresses from the DNS because it was causing errors and slowdowns when accessed by non-IPv6 users. In other words, they launched an IPv6-ready network, but nobody else was ready to use it and so they partially closed it down to avoid causing problems and delays for users.

Google is also partnering with other major web providers like Facebook and Yahoo® to promote world IPv6 day on June 8, 2011. On this day, these companies will enable IPv6 on their main websites for 24 hours in an attempt to test solutions on a broad scale and help the industry prepare for the new protocol and pave the way for global deployment.

Even though IPv6 is a necessary change for the long-term growth and stability of the web, it will not be without its own share of growing pains. Some software will need to be updates, some hardware may have to be replaced, and network administrators will probably lose a lot of hair and sleep trying to address all the issues.

But if you do have questions or concerns about readying software or networks for IPv6, we do offer custom software development and software project rescue in addition to our 24x7 software support services, all of which can help you avoid upcoming problems.