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| Make room, make room. A business guide to Internet Protocol |
September 4, 2001 |
By K.K. Campbell
Once upon a time, the Internet was a place for academics, students and geeks. Business was verboten on the information highway and news organizations ignored it, unless hackers and sex were part of the story. Those days are long gone, and despite recent dramatic gyrations on Wall Street and in global stock markets, the Internet continues to expand steadily into a worldwide force.
An Ipsos-Reid study last May estimated 350 million adults are now online across the globe. Many countries are catching up to adoption leaders like Canada, Sweden and the U.S. Research firm eMarketer predicts 40.8 million users in Latin America alone by 2004.
And now this juggernaut is experiencing a shortage of domain names—the .com and .net addresses that you enter at the top of your browser.
It’s also running out of Internet Protocol (IP) numbers, the "phone numbers" that actually reside underneath domain names.
Master of your domain
Domain names were created to make life easier for Web users. Because people are better at recalling words than strings of numbers, the Domain Name System was designed to allow ’net surfers to use words when looking for networked computers. This is not a new idea. You’ll notice on old TV shows, like The Honeymooners, that phone numbers were rendered by words and numbers, like "Bensonhurst 55555."
When you type, say,http://www.kkc.net into a browser, your computer checks with a domain name server and finds that name is assigned to IP number 216.92.41.96, and routes the request accordingly.
Following protocols
The current system for IP numbers is called IPv4—Internet Protocol version 4. It has a 32-bit address, which theoretically creates about 4.2 billion IP numbers, but IP is assigned in blocks so the actual number of individuals and organizations served is far fewer.
When IPv4 was instituted about 20 years ago, 4.2 billion seemed like an ample supply of IP addresses to serve the anticipated demand. But by 1991, various Internet standards bodies knew there would soon be a need for more IP number space.
Everyone predicted there’d be more computers by 2001, but few foresaw the convergence of media; computers aren’t the only devices getting hooked up—mobile phones, cars, even kitchen appliances now use IP numbers.
And IPv4 can’t handle the load.
A new code
Enter Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) to save the day.
IPv6 has a 128-bit address, meaning each square foot of the planet will now have several thousand potential IP numbers at its disposal.
But IPv6 isn’t merely about increased IP supply. It also improves business performance through the following advantages:
Labour savings: One of the biggest problems with IPv4 is the need for administrators to enter IP numbers manually, whereas IPv6 features network auto-configuration. Labour costs saved by removing manual configuration of IP numbers could pay for the costs of making the switch to IPv6 within 12 to 18 months.
Bandwidth priority: With IPv4, there’s little capacity to prioritize different kinds of bandwidth usage, so when the network clogs, everything suffers. IPv6 offers the capacity to set priorities—determining which Internet media should suffer first during congestion. This can be configured internally, within a company, for example.
Enhanced privacy: IPv6 improves network privacy protection. Canada has passed Bill C6 (check it out at http://www.privcom.gc.ca—look for "The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act") and that means the private sector must now take great care with data confidentiality. Privacy is no longer a technical issue, it’s a business issue.
Ease of transition: No one wants the chaos and cost of massive one-day transitions. But the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 should not incur typical transition cost overruns—because there’s no hard and fast deadline, IPv6 is expected to roll out gradually. Even if an IPv6 network sits between two IPv4 networks, everything should still flow normally.
All of which means you can set into motion your own business plans to switch to IPv6. Then sit back and hook the company’s automated fish feeder to the Internet. Plenty of IP numbers for all.
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