IP Addresses will be Exhausted in Less than a Year

IP addresses are assigned to those devices like computers, phones, cars, wireless sensors, etc that is connected with the Internet. But, according to the Internet analysts, we will run out of IP addresses in less than a year. As per ReadWriteWeb, Internet is evolving on daily basis. New devices are hooked to the net very frequently. That’s why we may run out of the numbers to assign those web enabled electronics.

“The main reason for the concern? There’s an explosion of data about to happen to the Web thanks largely to sensor data, smart grids, RFID and other Internet of Things data,” Richard Macmanus writes on that site.

John Curran, president and CEO of the American Registry for Internet Numbers, told ReadWriteWeb that only 4 billion IP addresses can be assigned under the current system and that is going to be exhausted in less than a year.

Our existing system for assigning IP addresses can only handle 32 bits of data. But, researchers are working on new version called “IPv6″ to accommodate more IP addresses and it will also be able to to handle 128 bits of data.  Alexis Madrigal writes at The Atlantic website that the situation is similar to the 80’s and 90’s when we were running out of phone numbers. That’s why we added more digits.

Although, researchers are on IPv6 more than a decade, but the adoption level is very slow. The situation can be compared with the Y2K issue. They further said that we have to act now to move to the new system. Otherwise, Internet may stop working after a while.