The internet is running out of big blocks of addresses to give out! IP addresses define the route data takes when it travels through the net and reaches the right person at the right time. Experts estimate that 9 September 2011 is the day when the last of these addresses will be given out for use.

A year and a half from that date, the entire batch of addresses will be given out and exhausted. To counter this depletion, an alternate scheme is being rolled out but experts are warning that countries are being very slow to adopt this new scheme. The current IP version 4 (IPv4) is what the net is built around right now which has a capacity of 4 billion addresses, it’s successor IPv6 has the capacity for trillions.

The internet expanded way to fast and the remaining addresses were given out even faster. The estimates a few decades ago are no longer valid as the supernormal growth of the internet has led to a massive depletion of these addresses faster than expected and now only 7% of the total pool are left. This means that 300 million addresses are left for allocation.

China has already converted to IPv6 because of the large number of users. IPv4 rationing has started to slow down the depletion. Some steps that the authorities are taking to make sure this happens are:

• Providers need to prove they need more addresses
• Providers cannot get more addresses till they reach a certain threshold

ISP’s are being urged to start using the IPv6 addressing system to make sure the transition is smooth and users do not feel the difference as conversion from IPv4 to IPv6 can cause significant delay to browsing and other services. Converting IPv4 to IPv6 requires network address translation at the ISP level.