Although the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has been calling attention to the expected exhaustion of IPv4 addresses in 2011, it will be difficult to transition to IPv6 as the mainstream IP address assignment over the next several years, according to telecom experts attending a symposium held by the Taiwan Network Information Center (TWNIC) in Taipei on March 30.
IPv6 is significantly superior to IPv4 in terms of technological specifications, security and available IP addresses, but there is no pressure to force the use of IPv6 nor are there any commercial models driving the use of IPv6, according to the Telecommunication Laboratories of Chunghwa Telecom. In addition, telecom carriers have to invest in setting up dual-stack infrastructure for users of both IPv4 and IPv6 during the transition process, the organization pointed out.
Despite the forthcoming exhaustion of IPv4 addresses, enterprises and organizations with more than their needed addresses may privately sell some to new users, a professor attendee pointed out.
According to IANA statistics, the distribution of IPv4 addresses among countries is largely uneven, with 4.74 addresses per person (divided by population) in the US, 0.14 in China and 1.07 in Taiwan, TWNIC indicated.
Source: DIGITIMES
