The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has called on internet service providers, web companies and home networking equipment manufacturers to fully embrace and enable IPv6.
A year ago, ICANN allocated the last five IPv4 address blocks to the five Regional Internet Registries, and the number of available internet addresses is fast running out.
Fortunately, the organization says use of the next generation of internet addressing – IPv6 – has been steadily growing since early 2011.
This is crucial, because IPv6 is how the internet will continue to serve as a platform for innovation and economic development, ICANN stated.
The organization said, “The architecture of IPv4 allowed for four billion internet addresses. That’s no longer sufficient on a planet of seven billion humans, where many of those humans have multiple devices attached to the internet.
“Every device connected to the internet needs an IP address, whether it is a smartphone, mail server, laptop or web server.”
ICANN revealed that nearly 6,700 IPv6 networks were publicly routed on the internet in January 2012, and more are expected in the months leading up to World IPv6 Launch on 6 June 6th.