Trillions more internet addresses may emerge

The foundations have been laid for upgrading the internet with an improved system for identifying computers around the globe.

A new identification technology has been built into a number of the internet's master, or "root" servers, which supply subsidiary servers, announced the US-based independent body that coordinates the internet's address system, the Los Angeles-based Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), on Wednesday.

"This is a big, big step," said Vinton Cerf, who designed the communications protocol that supports most internet traffic flow, called TCP/IP, and is now a member of ICANN's board of directors.

The internet uses a numerical system to identify computers connected around the world. Numerical addresses are mapped to names by domain name servers. For example, the domain name www.newscientist.com directs requests to computers with the Internet Protocol address 194.203.155.123, which identifies the computer hosting the site.

In-built encryption

There are 13 root domain name servers that hold the master records for all such address mappings. But the range of numbers used under the current system, Internet Protocol Version 4 (IPv4), is slowly running out and about two thirds of the 4.3 billion numbers allocated have been used up so far. So a new set of rules, called IPv6, has been designed to take its place.

IPv6 will increase the number of numerical addresses massively, increasing capacity to 340 billion, billion, billion, billion numbers. This should allow for virtually any number of new computers or devices to be connected to the internet in the future. IPv6 will also introduce reliability and security enhancements.

Ben Laurie, a programmer who works on a number of internet software projects, says perhaps the most important aspect of IPv6 is that it includes in-built encryption. This will make it easier to make internet communications secure by from eavesdropping.

Significant gesture

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"It will make it much easier to do end-to-end encryption," Laurie says. "So possibly the most important benefit will be for privacy."

Laurie adds that the change announced by ICANN will have little impact until other internet infrastructure including smaller domain name servers and other networking hardware is also changed. But he sees it is as a significant gesture.

"Having the root name servers signal that they think it's time this was done is a good thing," Laurie told New Scientist. "Certainly IPv4 will get exhausted eventually. It's already quite painful to use."

To achieve a smooth transition IPv6 has been designed to run in parallel with IPv4 and is expected to do so for around 20 years.

Will Knight