[Student Post]
For those that didn’t know, the world is running out of IP Addresses:
It
has been known for some time that the current structure of IP addresses
is not sufficient for the number of computers/devices
accessing the internet in future. The current structure of IP
addresses, known as IPv4, is structured as xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx (e.g.
192.168.0.1) which limits this number of unique addresses to
4,294,967,296.
With the limit of Ipv4 addresses expected to be exhausted soon and the number of internet connected devices estimated to reach
22 billion by 2020 (IMS Research) it is clear a new IP standard is required.
Thankfully
a group known as the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has been
developing IPv6 since the early 90’s which provides
for 340 undecillon (that’s 340 with 36 zeros) unique addresses. (e.g.
2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334).
However, proliferation of IPv6
has been slow with Google estimating in 2008 that IPv6 uptake among
users was less than 1%. The need for replacement and/or updating of some
hardware and software is partly to blame for
this slow rate of uptake.
So
it seems a significant burden has been placed on the IETF to ensure the
smooth running of the internet through the adoption
of IPv6. That’s a lot of technical control for how the internet of the
future is run. Interestingly the IETF is a volunteer organisation with
no formal membership. Their work is funded by employers of its
volunteers and sponsors including the US National Security
Agency (NSA).
Questions this raises for me:
-
If IPv6 is developed through volunteers Is the internet controlled and owned by everyone?
-
Although ICANN is
no longer US
Government controlled it seems the IETF may be to some extent. If all
roads lead to the US is the US government in control of the internet?
Another way of thinking about this issue might be “Who has the deepest level of technical control over how the internet is run?”
Maybe that’s the IETF.