An IP address is a unique address (such as 147.132.42.18) that certain electronic devices use in order to identify and communicate with each other on a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol standard (IP) – in simpler terms, a computer address. The IP address acts as a locator for one IP device to find another and interact with it. On the public Internet (as opposed to private internets or intranets), IP addresses are managed and created by the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). The IANA generally allocates super-blocks to Regional Internet Registries, who in turn allocate smaller blocks to Internet service providers and enterprises. Read the full background at IP Addressing Wikipedia
Who would dare to predict the year the Internet will reach 50 billion addressable devices? Thomas Noren, head of LTE product development at Ericsson sees one day 50 billion devices shouldered by LTE. He sees LTE as the truly global standard putting to rest the long and acrimonious rivalry between CDMA and GSM protagonists and even sees the Chinese third way with their TD-SCDMA aligned on LTE. Mobile WiMax is, in his mind, already relegated to the dustbin of history... more»
Is the glass half full or half empty? The human reflex of selective deafness to information or arguments countering one’s established believes lives on. The ISOC organized lunchtime IPv6 panel at IETF 74 in San Francisco illustrates the point... more»
A lot of pixels have been spilled lately over an Internet records retention bill recently introduced in both the House and the Senate. The goal is to fight child pornography. That's a worthwhile goal; however, I think these bills will do little to further it. Worse yet, I think that at least two of the provisions of the bill are likely to have bad side effects... more»
Slowly, we’re making progress mainstreaming IPv6. I wanted to post on a few interesting developments. Late last month, Netflix got an IPv6 allocation from ARIN, and they’re advertising it in BGP... I look forward to the day I can stream movies to my Netflix set-top box over IPv6. more»
Remarkable how Ethernet has evolved and been widely adopted over this quarter of a century period extending its reach from LAN to MAN to WAN and from 10meg to 10gigE. One has to credit the IEEE for quite an efficient job as a standards body. Over in the IP world, this month of March will see IETF 74 meet in San Francisco and continue to ponder transitions, address translations, double translations, even carrier grade translations... more»
U.S. Republican politicians on Thursday introduced a bill that would require Internet service providers and network operators to track the use of and maintain records for their publicly accessible wired and wireless networks. Two bills have been introduced... Each of the bills carries the title "Internet Stopping Adults Facilitating the Exploitation of Today’s Youth Act," and is referred to as the "Internet SAFETY Act." more»
A Tipping Point for the Internet? Catching the precise moment of a tectonic shift in a global system as large and important as the Internet may be viewed as an exercise in the improbable. However, I point out in this summary that I think we are precisely in the midst of such a shift... more»
At Cisco Networkers in Barcelona earlier this week, some of us saw a dragon try to wiggle out of its shell, provided you connected in IPv6 that is. A smile to Kame, the turtle which only danced under a IPv6 caress. Networkers 2009 saw more than 3000 attendants and a good complement of IPv6 presentations highlighted by a high powered plenary panel on the status of IPv6. more»
The beginning of the year saw IPv6 added to the DNS root, closing a major hole for IPv6-only communication. In mid-year, the US federal government's IPv6 mandate came into effect, requiring all federal IP backbones to support IPv6. While the mandate didn't have anywhere near the effect that many had hoped for, it did spur many vendors to add IPv6 support to their products. The amount of observed IPv6 traffic increased considerably, but we still lack good data for how much IPv6 is being used. So, where were we at the end of 2008? more»
Tunnel vision is a rather serious medical condition and the Internet or at least a number of service providers could be at risk if not treated soon enough. Symptoms of inter AS (Autonomous System) tunnel vision are many slower connections with IPv6 compared to IPv4 with some failing all together. Reason is that tunnels, especially inter-AS tunnels, can lead to long paths and non-optimal routing. more»
As a response to the forecasts prepared by several investigators indicating that by the year 2011 the central pool of version 4 (IPv4) Internet addresses could be completely depleted, LACNIC announces it is launching a regional campaign so that all the region's networks will be adapted to the new version 6 of the protocol (IPv6) before January 1st, 2011. 185 weeks, and counting... ›››