by D. Vogt

Created on: August 11, 2010

IPv6 refers to Internet Protocol version 6, a new set of specifications computers can use to identify themselves and communicate with other computers over the Internet. It is the immediate planned successor to the current specification, IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4). IPv6 is expected to become the common standard for Internet connections in the next several years as a result of the impending shortage of IPv4 addresses.

The Internet Protocol (IP) is a standard which computers use to identify themselves and exchange groups of data, known as packets, over the Internet. When the first version of the Internet, the ARPANet, was first designed, it was intended to be decentralized enough to cope with the destruction of a nuclear war - meaning that two computers could communicate with one another through a vast web of interconnections without having to follow a single specific path, or even to follow the same path twice. Today that system is used to cope with the complexity of hundreds of millions of users connecting with each other and with websites through thousands of service providers, but the principle remains the same.

The most important part of this system at the present, and particularly relating to the transition from IPv4 to IPv6, relates to how computers identity themselves. In order to ensure that packets reach their destination (regardless of the path they travel in between), each computer receives a specific and unique identification number when it connects to the Internet, analogous to a telephone number. These unique numbers, known as IP addresses, are allocated both to end users, such as readers of this web page, as well as to the servers that power Helium.com. A separate system, known as the Domain Name System (DNS), then links IP addresses to domain names (like Helium.com), so that Internet users do not have to remember the IP addresses the way they do telephone numbers.

The IPv4 system allocates addresses using a system of four digits, each equal to a number between 0 and 255. For instance, a computer's IP address might be 59.40.255.0, or 210.210.210.210. In total, about four billion unique IP addresses are thus available. These are currently administered by the U.S.-based Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA). IANA allocates blocks, each of about 17 million IP addresses, to five regional Internet registries (respectively covering North America, the Asia-Pacific, Africa, Europe, and South and Central America). These registries then

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