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The Internet has inarguably shrunk the world. The number of websites, the kind of information that is created and accessed everyday is enormous. While the web business is booming, crunch of IP addresses is becoming a huge challenge, which the industry stalwarts have long been warning about. The current version of IP addresses allotted to websites-IPv4-has been the base for the Internet for the past forty years. But it is almost getting exhausted. By 2011-12, the IPv4 platform would have already run out of its IP addresses.

India is the second largest telecom market in the world, and this is definitely going to create a huge demand in the Internet industry, with the rapid growth of broadband and wireless technologies that will push the demand for IP addresses in India.

A survey commissioned by the European Commission (EC) reveals that the organizations have been slow to the adoption of IPv6, the next generation of Internet addressing protocol. This is jeopardizing Internet growth and the socio-economic development in various regions.

India is also the second largest member country for APNIC-a body that allots IP addresses. We consume 0.22% of IPv4 space in the world today. While the US holds 54.72%, Japan 6.15%, China 4.98%, and Australia (first in Asia) holds 0.76% of IPv4 space.

Globally, almost 90% of the available IPv4 addresses are already consumed (only 25/8 IPv4 addresses are available, and are expected to be exhausted sometime in 2011). It seems unreasonable to expect the current IPv4 based infrastructure to scale up to the demands of the coming decade.

The IPv4 version, which is widely used today, is the most popular networking protocol. The IPv4 protocol uses a 32 bit address, and yields about 4.3 bn addresses. In the current scenario, the unique IP addresses provided to the websites are growing. The estimates of the same is around 4 mn globally. The IPv4 has the limitation of accommodating only a finite number of addresses.

The unique address that is given to the web space has been under pressure. The IPv6 system, which has been developed can accommodate 340 tn web addresses. It uses 128 bit web addresses that can possibly allow infinite number of URLs and trillions of new addresses.

It has been estimated that the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) will exhaust allocating all its IPv4 addresses to Regional Internet Registries (RIR) by April 2011, and the RIRs will end up doing so by July 2012!

Despite the exhaustion of IPv4, the slow rate of adoption of IPv6 has left the industry stalwarts wondering as to what can be the possible ways in which users can be motivated to upgrade to the new platform. The IPv6 deployment remains below 1% globally and near zero in India. This has become a serious issue to be contemplated among all levels as web users are not restricted to any specific company or location.

Importance for India
In the aftermath of 3G, mobile phones will also be net exhaustive and almost every mobile will have a unique IP address. Broadband users will also be increasing, and threat will require a whole range of new IP addresses.

Be it rich applications, converged services, gaming solutions, or m-governance-the market will be booming with data applications, and thus the need to migrate to the new platform of IPv6 will become important.

Currently, there are about 18 mn addresses available in India. And, there is a huge difference that exists between the two IP platforms.

IPv6 implementation requires careful planning and education, crucial for the successful integration and transition PK Saji, senior vice president, global infrastructure operations, Sify Technologies	India should adopt this next generation of Internet addresses as early as possible Jayachandra K, president, IPv6 Forum, India

Most big operators across the globe are in the process of deploying IPv6 infrastructure and some are in trial phase with firm plans. China Telecom (incumbent wireline SP in China) has publicly announced that they have started the IPv6 trials now, and there are plans for mass deployment in 2012, and that IPv4 shall retire by 2015. Telstra in Australia has firm IPv6 roll-out plans with their public Internet backbone to offer services within 2010, and other networks to follow.

Countries like India and China, that have 38% of the world's population, are dictating the new rules of Internet traffic. China, last year, surpassed the US in terms of Internet usage. The huge increase in the number of web addresses used and created on a daily basis in these countries is having global implications.

Vish Iyer, VP, service provider, Cisco, India & SAARC says, "Given the scale and size of the Indian mobile market, Indian operators need the ISP infrastructure to support IPv6. The back-end systems are already in the process of gearing up from a network evolution perspective."

Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel are some of the SPs working to upgrade the exponential growth of Internet witnessed in recent times with an updated version on this front.

Impediments
The main impediment of migration from IPv4 to IPv6 has been a lack of will on the part of the companies. Alamuri Sitaramaiah, director, sales and marketing, Fluke Networks India says, "The lack of absolute compulsion is what is probably putting off the migration."

A recent survey commissioned by APNIC and conducted by KPMG-with 601 respondents from forty-four different Asia Pacific economies-has revealed that nearly two-thirds of the respondents are not adequately prepared for the transition to IPv6.

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