Hot! Electronics - The Cool Stuff

The latest study from the company "Frost & Sullivan" produced worrying results. The research concluded that, if the trend of internet growth continues, there won't be enough IP addresses for everyone by the year 2010. The sources of this problem are the numerous mobile devices which more than ever connectable to the internet, and will continue to use the internet even more.
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An IP address is a unique number assigned to every computer (device) online on the internet, and nothing would be able to connect without one. This number is final and is just under 4, 3 billion. The main problem is that when the internet started no one imagined the proportions to which it would grow, so the IP addresses were reserved and assigned carelessly. A great example of this carelessness is the fact that Stanford University has more IP addresses at their disposal than China, and the US department of defense more than entire continent of Asia. This problem was soon corrected but it was already too late, so the above examples did still happen. Getting additional IP addresses for their customers is already a problem for, developing countries, ISP-s (internet service providers).

The status of the IP now is that of the 4, 3 billion addresses, one third is already used up, and one third is reserved. IDC has predicted that, if trends continue, there will be 12 billion devices online by the year 2012, and not nearly enough IP addresses.

The only solution to this major problem is of course: new technology. There is a next generation of IP, version 6 to be exact which is able do deliver around 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 IP addresses or in other words over 60 IP addresses per square meter of the Earth's surface, and that should be enough for the future.
But the problem is still here, since only about 30% of the ISP-s will be able to supply this new technology to their customers by the year 2010. And of course there is the issue of compatibility between the current version and the v6.

So we might find ourselves shutting down our computers so we can free the IP address and go online on a cell phone when we're away from home. (Of course that's not the case, but it's still something to think about)