World IPv6 Launch - 6 June 2012

The World IPv6 Launch on 6 June 2012 is organized by the Internet Society and is intended to motivate organizations across the industry including Internet service providers (ISPs), hardware makers and web companies to prepare for and permanently enable Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) on their products and services. This initiative is to make sure that the internet can keep growing at its current rate or even more as the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address space runs out. World IPv6 Launch will mark the largest industry commitment to and deployment of IPv6 in the history of the Internet, with ISPs, home networking equipment manufacturers and web companies around the world permanently enabling IPv6 within their products and services.

So the next question is what is IPv6 and why do we need it. The Internet operates by transferring data between networks in packets. In order to communicate and send/receive packets of data, each host, computer or other device connected to the Internet must be identified by a unique IP address. IPv4 has approximately four billion IP addresses (the sequence of numbers assigned to each Internet-connected device). The explosion in the number of people, devices, and web services on the Internet means that IPv4 is running out of space. IPv6, the next-generation Internet protocol which provides more than 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses, will connect the billions of people not connected today, allow a huge range of devices to connect directly with one another, and help ensure the Internet can continue its current growth rate indefinitely.

Most Internet users will not be affected by this transition since World IPv6 Launch will simply introduce IPv6 in parallel to IPv4. All participating websites will continue to support access over IPv4. You shouldn’t worry if you aren’t able to obtain access to the IPv6 Internet. As ISPs enable IPv6 and home gateway products support it, users at home with modern operating systems and devices will start using IPv6 automatically. The majority of users shouldn’t notice the transition at all. IPv4 access will still be available as companies permanently enable IPv6 on their products and services.
For more information about World IPv6 Launch and to show your support towards it, please visit World IPv6 Launch.