No More IP Addresses? The Y2K Bug Returns! (VZ, CMCSA, TWC)

It actually happened. The Y2K bug has crawled into IP addresses. Today, the internet ran out of unique device identifiers know as IP address, according to the Christian Science Monitor. Here's why. Every device that connects to the internet has an IP address that is unique to that particular device. The current address system used by devices today know as IPv4 which has a 32-bit address limitation of just over four billion potential numbers. When IPv4 was designed in 1981, the total amount of possible addresses seemed unobtainable. Unfortunately, due to the high proliferation of internet enabled devices from laptops, cell phones, and even televisions, four billion addresses ran out pretty quickly. Before you panic like the second coming of Y2K , however, consider this. Fortunately, IPv6 was designed in 1998 to deal with this limitation. IPv6 was designed to be 128-bit, meaning the total number of possible addresses is an astronomical 48 octillion. Only hindrance to adoption is that internet service providers (ISP) such as Verizon VZ, Comcast CMCSA, and Time Warner TWC have been very slow to implement IPv6 hardware. The most pressing concern for ISPs is the significant infrastructure investment that it would take to allow IPv4 customers connect with IPv6 services. There is no immediate concern, however, because IPv4 services will continue to operate. Nevertheless, as newer devices continue to be added, there will be a slow degradation of services. There are still many solutions to prolong the lifespan of IPv4 for the near future. The most common example is Network Address Translation which takes a single public IP address and splits it among several private addresses. This is most common among a home or office network. Additionally, while all IPv4 addresses are allocated, the vast majority go largely unused. A new market could be created to buy and sell IPv4 addresses. Universities and businesses own a large chuck of IPv4 address spectrum with the majority of addresses going unused. Countries with an expanding online population, such as China, are moving directly to IPv6. A consequence of this is creating parts of the internet that are entire inaccessible from the remainder of the world that still use IPv4. Combine this with a progressively increasing amount Internet ready devices becoming available, and we might eventually see a wholesale shift to IPv6. It is really just a matter of how long the transition will take. But in the meantime, did you feel that Y2K bug itch?