Mobile devices, IPv4 and the death of the Internet

More dire warnings have been issued over the proliferation of mobile devices and the impending shortage of IP addresses. GoMo News has covered this story several times in the past, and today we present an  overview of the problem, its implications and possible solution.

What’s the story?

Every device that connects to the Internet does so through Internet Protocol (IP), and has an IP address. The current version of the technology is IP version 4 (IPv4) – which allows for roughly 4.3 billion addresses. The problem is that far more IP addresses than that will be needed in the near future. Stop-gap measures are currently in place, the most popular being Network Address Translation (NAT), which allows multiple devices to share a single IP address. But this method has several problems. It damages the quality of the connection for each device. It’s also only useful for users – new services that want a dedicated, secure web address will need their own IP address. And even with NAT in place, the shortage has only been delayed.

Why now?

According to the most recent report, from Sci-Tech Today, IPv4 will run out of addresses late next year. The main reason the shortage is now becoming critical is mobile devices. Most people in the developed world now have more than one device that connects to the web. A brief look at my own situation can give you a good impression of what I mean. I have a laptop computer, a desktop computer, an Android smartphone, and a web-capable iPod.

And that’s just in developed countries. In markets like India and China, mobile devices are the primary access point for the internet, and the number of 3G-capable handsets is exploding.

What’s the solution?

The solution is an upgrade to IP technology. The next version of Internet Protocol is IPv6 – and it will enable a truly astonishing number of IP addresses per person. One commenter suggests that there will be “4.86117667 × 10^28 addresses per person”. That’s 10 octillion IP addresses. Per person.

As GoMo News reported earlier this year, after the IPv6 Summit in Dublin, Ireland, “ground zero” for the IPv4 depletion is predicted at roughly September 2011. A solution will have to be in place by then.

What we think?

Ensuring that IPv6 is ready by September next year is certainly important in Europe and America – but it’s critical in areas like Africa, China and India. Internet use is growing fast, and the vast majority of web access in these markets is through mobile. There’s an equally impressive growth of service providers and mobile Internet startups in these markets as well. Without an upgrade to the substrate of the technology, this nascent market could easily be choked off.