Come Wednesday, June 6, the Internet will be much the same to the billions of users now accessing it globally on a daily basis. But beneath the surface, hidden behind the latest news story, tabloid photo, or viral video to make the rounds, big changes are afoot.
The current and quite exhausted system used to connect people and devices over the internet worldwide is called IPv4 (Internet Protocol v.4). IPv4 utilizes a 32 bit system for creating unique addresses that allow every computer and mobile device to access the Internet and receive information from other addresses. The problem is, those addresses have run out, all 4.3 billion possible combinations of them. And without new addresses, there can be no further expansion of the Internet, and no new devices to reach them.
To the rescue comes IPv6, the new 128-bit standard which should keep the Internet running smoothly for the next 590 years or so. You see, with the new protocol, there are a staggering 340 undecillion addresses ready to be doled out to the masses. Yes, undecillion. If you're not familiar with this number, let's just say it's big; VERY big.
Switching over to this new system is not as simple as flipping a switch though, and has been in the planning stages for quite some time to ensure there are no overly large hiccups come the big day. In fact, a year ago, on Wednesday, several major Internet giants tested IPv6 for a day in preparation for the full launch one year later.
Things will progress slowly at first, with few users and only major websites being IPv6 enabled (Wednesday's launch will see the likes of Yahoo, Facebook, and Google make the jump). But that will snowball in the coming years, as more and more users are forced to take up IPv6 as a matter of necessity, which will prompt more and more websites to upgrade their own systems. The 1 million IPv6-enabled mobile devices as of last year is expected to burgeon to 8 million by 2016, according to Cisco.
While it's doubtful that most users will encounter problems (the move to IPv6 has already begun after all, despite June 6 being the official launch day), it is possible a small percentage will. During the testing day one year ago, approximately 0.05% of users experienced issues while visiting the IPv6-enabled Yahoo site. Those issues will quickly fade though as IPv6 becomes the standard all websites and networks must strive for in the comings weeks, months, and years.
So if you thought the Internet was vast now, it's about to get a whole lot bigger.
