Title:
Shortage of Internet Addresses, but a Slow Move to
New System
Description: This is
a VOA Special English Technology Report.
See text below
Text:
June eighth was World IPv6 Day -- the first major
deployment of Internet Protocol version 6. Hundreds
of Internet service providers and Web companies
tested IPv6 on their websites. This new numbering
system for Internet addresses has been available for
years. But very few companies have switched to it.
Yet the old system could run out of addresses this
year because of all the growth in online devices.
Computer science professor Doug Szajda at the
University of Richmond in Virginia explains: "It's
sort of like the post office of the Internet. It
tells you how to get information from one computer
to another. Currently, and since around nineteen
eighty, the addressing system has been IP version 4.
But the problem with that is that we've run out of
addresses. So it's almost as if, when a new house is
built, you can't give it an address because you
don't have any more." IPv4 was designed to handle
just over four billion IP addresses. Doug Szajda
says that seemed like more than enough. "At the time
that IP version 4 was designed, the designers were
anticipating perhaps thousands of users of the
Internet someday, and certainly thinking that four
billion addresses was many more than we would ever
need." Yet now, not just computers but smartphones,
cars, televisions, game systems and plenty of other
devices all connect to the Internet. Each uses a
different IP address. The basic standards for IPv6
were first published in nineteen ninety-eight. Doug
Szajda says its most important feature is the
ability to provide what seems like an unlimited
number of IP addresses. Well, there is a limit --
three hundred forty trillion trillion trillion in
fact, or three hundred forty undecillion. That's
three hundred forty followed by thirty-six zeros.
Experts say the challenge now is to get the world to
use it. Mr. Szajda says that was the real purpose of
the World IPv6 Day sponsored by the Internet
Society. "It was less a worldwide test than a means
of generating some incentive for vendors to realize
we can't drag our feet anymore. This has to
happen."The process of switching to IPv6 can be
complex and costly. This could explain why so few
companies have made the switch. CompTIA, the
Computing Technology Industry Association, recently
did a survey. The group talked to more than four
hundred information technology and business leaders
in the United States. Only twenty-one percent said
they have started doing work to upgrade their
networks. For VOA Special English, I'm Alex
Villarreal.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
