The devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan and the Pacific last week can be described as an “apocalyptic” event by those who found themselves right in the middle of the natural disaster.
Recently the term was applied to an important development in the history of internet. A few weeks ago the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) gave out the last batch of Internet Protocol (IP) numbers that identify destinations on the internet such as computers and mobile devices. This means that no new devices can be connected to internet under the current system known as IPv4, which supports only about four billion devices. There is a new system, IPv6, which supports trillions of devices, but this is still being rolled out across the world. Malta is yet to start the roll-out of IPv6 in commercial services.
The scenario painted by some commentators as a result of this fact has been described as “IPocalypse”, a play on the word “apocalypse”.
But should we worry? Are we headed towards the end of internet as we know it?
“No it is not true,” insisted a spokesman for the Malta Communications Authority (MCA), which is tasked with the switch over to IPv6 in Malta.
“It is estimated that it will take at least another 10 years before IPv4 is phased out completely and therefore, IPv4 and IPv6 will coexist for at least another decade. However, although today there are no critical business drivers forcing organisations towards IPv6, organisations should start putting together transition strategies sooner rather than later. The earlier organisations plan their transition the cheaper and easier the whole process will be. Such transitions can take place gradually during the technology refresh process.”
According to an EU action plan, Europe should have had IPv6 connectivity by 2010. However this deadline has been missed.
“The EU action plan was never actively pursued and the targets set were not attainable in practice. In fact during this year’s IPv6 Congress in Paris, Jacques Babot (from the European Commission) admitted that such targets could not be attained because the plan did not take into consideration challenges such as costs, lack of knowledge, vendor support and the lack of business needs,” explained the MCA spokesman.
In 2005 the MCA had issued a consultation paper, held a conference and an IPv6 Task Force was set-up. In February 2007 The Maltese IPv6 Task Force, led by the MCA, launched two surveys to get a wider and clearer picture of the current situation of internet in Malta. Since then we have not heard much about the task force and other initiatives. The original website of the task force does not work anymore.
“Unfortunately, due to a number of hurdles, the time was not opportune for many organisations to endorse the transition from IPv4 to IPv6. This was a global challenge and not just a local one,” replied the authority’s spokesman, who confirmed that a number of awareness raising activities and technical information dissemination have taken place over the past years. Some organisations in Malta have been allocated IPv6 addresses but Maltese internet access is still based on IPv4.
The University of Malta and the university-based Malta Internet Foundation, which provides web domains that end with “.mt” and runs the internet exchange for traffic in Malta, had made an IPv6 test-bed available for use by local ISPs to experiment. The test-bed was set up in liaison with the MCA. Native IPv6 connectivity, through the University’s GEANT (EU-funded next-generation internet network connection used for research), was provided to test-bed participants. Although the test-bed is technically still available it is not currently being actively used. However this is still available to ISPs if they wish to use it. One of the ISPs can already host IPv6 websites. IPv6 blocks have been allocated to Malta over the years but these are not in commercial use.
The authority said during 2011/2012 it will be putting together a strategy for the IPv6 transition which will establish the current status and short to medium term plans. The MCA website should be hosted in both IPv4 and IPv6 by June.
AFP reports Google, Facebook and other major internet players will add IPv6 addresses to their systems in a one-day trial run on June 8 to let all parties involved check for trouble spots. World IPv6 Day will be marked on that day.
The assignment of the last batch of IPv4 numbers last month prompted a press announcement by ICANN, which insisted there is no need to worry too much.
“It is like running out of license plates,” said Internet Architecture Board chairman Olaf Kolkman. “Driving on the road the next day would not change.”
While IPv4 IP numbers look something like “192.0.2.235”, an IPv6 address would be similar to “2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334”.
However, consumers, for the most part, should remain oblivious to the switch since complex IP numbers would still appear to them as words and domains, such as icann.org.
“My mother, my neighbour, my kids – they should never notice,” Mr Kolkman said.
“The internet won’t stop working; it will just slowly degrade,” Google engineer Lorenzo Colitti said of not making the move to IPv6. “Things will get slower and flakier.”
Some people might need to update routers or modems that connect computers to the internet, AFP said.