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Editor: Matt Paines

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Doomsday looms for IP addresses

The internet is fast running out of IP addresses and heading for digital meltdown unless leading players such as Google start investing in the next generation IP protocol.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) had done its bit when it recently decided to free restrictions on the choice of URLs- the meaningful addresses by which we recognise websites.

But IP addresses, the numerical addresses hidden behind all website names that represent all real internet addresses, are due to run out by 2011.

The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which issued the warning, said that the situation was critical for the future of the internet economy.

The current specification IPv4, which allows up to 4 billion permutations through a 32-bit addressing system, seemed more than adequate when it was introduced in 1981.

However, the global network is now creaking as thousands of devices demanding online access eat away at the remaining pool of IP addresses every day.

And it's not as if a long-term solution were not available: the IPv6 specification, which increases the address space from 32 to 128 bits, was finalised more than ten years ago.

But it comes down to costs. And as the OECD explained, immediate costs were associated with deployment of IPv6, whereas many benefits were long-term and depended on a critical mass adopting it.

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