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New Internet Version 6: India not tuned in

BANGALORE: The Internet, as it is experienced today, is set to change forever, because an impending crisis looms on the availability of IP addresses. Without an IP address, no device, mobile or fixed, can get connected to the Internet. IPv4, the most widely used version of the Internet Protocol, is fast running out of addresses and may get exhausted by 2009. Yet, when worldwide global firms and governments are preparing for the IPv6, the next version, India remains an island of complacency.

Here is the problem: being a limited resource, IPv4 can be available only to a fixed number of connected devices (4,294,967,296 to be precise). This is the theoretical maximum, but in reality it is impossible to efficiently use all the possible addresses. “There is not too much time left,” warn experts. “The consumption of IPv4 addresses seems to be accelerating. Waiting till the last minute will become expensive, while early movers will have new and/or increased business opportunities,” Chandra Kopparapu, a key player in the IP arena, told The Hindu.

The IP address crunch will apparently hit hard the business of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and creation of new ISPs. This will have its biggest impact on the developing regions such as India, rest of Asia, Africa and Latin America/Caribbean, where the Internet penetration is not yet so widespread. “Right now, the broadband penetration in India is really small. As the Internet usage grows here, the address crunch will become more problematic,” said Mr. Kopparapu.

With Internet access no longer confined to the desktop, it is certain that more people will start logging in through devices such as the mobile phone and PDAs. This is bound to increase the demand for more IP addresses manifold. It is in this context that the entry of the IPv6 (Internet Protocol Version 6) becomes significant.

IPv6 is designed to expand the available addressing space of the Internet and thus enable billions of new devices, and always-on technologies such as fibre-to-the-home, Ethernet-to-the-home, cable, xDSL and Power Line Communications, to connect to the Net.

Here is why version 6 is superior to the existing IPv4 version: IPv6 has a 128-bit address space. IPv6 has been designed to coexist with IPv4 and not break the IPv4 networks.

That means allowing the operating systems (such as Windows XP) and applications to choose between the two protocols for different communications. However, standards dictate that wherever possible, IPv6 should be preferred over IPv4.

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