IP addresses of the Internet, really to extinguish?

2010/12/01 Leturia Azkarate, Igor - Informatikaria eta ikertzaileaElhuyar Hizkuntza eta Teknologia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Internet

(Photo: © Ronald Hudson/350RF)

When we perform an interaction on the Internet (browse a website, write an email...), our computer should contact another computer to send or ask something to it. We normally use the domain name of the target computer (www.zientzia.net, google.com...), but the system called DNS, Domain Name System or Domain Name System translates that name to an IP address (in previous examples 82.223.160.213 and 173.194.36.104). And the Internet mechanisms actually use the IP address to establish the communication and traffic of packages. Servers and companies always have the same address, as in previous examples. The computers of the domestic users also have an IP address, since they need to arrive the downloaded pages, the messages, etc., but usually they are not fixed: every time we turn on the router, our Internet provider gives us a different address, one that has free at that time of which it has reserved.

IPv4 addresses to extinguish

The IP protocol was defined in 1980 and, since 1981, its second version called IPv4 is the one that supports the functioning of the Internet. In it, the addresses of the computers are indicated by 4 bytes, that is, with four numbers between 0 and 255. Therefore, there are 2 32 or 4.294.967.296 different addresses that can be represented through 32 bits (in the binary world of computers 0 and 1, one byte is formed by 8 bits, so it can take 2 8 or 256 different values, between 0 and 255. Therefore, with 4 bytes you can express 2 32 different values).

This figure might seem high, but not so much, considering that in the world we are almost 7 billion people. It is true that today many people do not use the internet, or at least at all times, but despite this it seems that the addresses will soon be exhausted by various causes.

On the one hand, the distribution of addresses initially used is not properly optimized: Applicants were assigned ranges of 256, 65,536 or 16,777,216, and many of the entities that connected to the Internet in the 1980s (mainly from the US), in case they reached 16 million. Thus, some U.S. universities have a wider range of directions than many states of a certain magnitude, although they then do not use it.

On the other hand, routers are now always connected: previously the connections were predominant via telephone modem, those that charged according to the time of connection and occupied the telephone line, then when we did not use the Internet we left the connection free and therefore the IP address. At present, however, ADSL and cable broadband connections predominate, of flat rate and that do not occupy the telephone line, so it is very common to be connected to the router day and night, permanently occupying the IP address.

Thirdly, more and more mobile devices allow Internet access, such as PDAs, smartphones, 3G modems, tablets, etc. And we use more and more all of them.

And finally, we must take into account the rise of Internet users. The number of Internet users is constantly increasing worldwide.

It is not clear when directions will run out. It has been said that very little is missing for this: at the beginning of the decade they were said to be exhausted for the period 2005-2008, but as those dates arrived the deadline has been expanding... In this autumn several sources have indicated that 95% of the addresses are occupied, that there are only 80 million free and that at normal rates will be exhausted in early 2011. But soon after, one of the companies that in the 1980s reserved 16 million addresses declared that they were released... In any case, most say it will occur sometime in the years 2011-2012.

IPv6, solution

In 1998, a new version of the IP protocol, IPv6, was prepared. Contrary to what your name may suggest, an IPv6 address is not composed of 6 bytes, but by 16 bytes. This means that there are 2 128 possible addresses, i.e., 3.40 x 10 38, or 340 sextiliotería. Do not try to imagine how much it is, because the word sextilion is not yet in Basque dictionaries. 340 billion four trillion or 340 million billion billion. At least age not to be exhausted in a time.

The transition to IPv6 would solve the problem of addresses. But this transition will not be so simple. Most of the users' computers and mobile phones are ready to work with IPv6, as they are usually updated with relative regularity. However, servers, Internet providers, or the Internet infrastructure itself will probably not be as prepared, as the tendency is not to touch things on them and make few updates. These companies will have to carry out work and investments, although there will be problems during a time in some services.

However, and even though, as with the effect 2000, there will be no lack of any unfortunate announcing the end of the world, a great catastrophe is not foreseen, but a little more problems. Well, you have to be prepared! And although in the end nothing happens, at least this article would serve you to know a little more about the internal functioning of the Internet. Is it not, reader?