Facebook, Google and Yahoo to switch over to new IPv6 addresses for a 24-hour trial in June
Facebook, Google and Yahoo are switching their websites to new internet addresses in a 24-hour bid to raise awareness of the critical shortage of capacity.
The three internet giants, which together attract more than 1bn visits a day, will transfer their sites to the next generation of internet addresses on 8 June, as experts warn than online capacity is running dangerously low.
Vint Cerf, a vice-president at Google and the man dubbed 'the godfather of the net', said the transition to new address space is 'one of the most important steps to protect the internet as we know it'.
Most of the net in Europe is based on internet protocol (IP) addresses standardised in 1996, known as IPv4. But experts warn that this space could be exhausted in a matter of months, meaning that the internet will simply stop expanding. The next generation of internet addresses, IPv6, has 4bn times more space than the current network.
Jonathan Heiliger, vice president of technical operations at Facebook, said the 24-hour test in June was a 'crucial step' in ensuring the internet remains on a level playing field for communication. Internet users whose service providers are not IPv6 compatible might not be able to reach sites that have switched from IPv4, and vice versa.
'In the short history of the internet, the transition to IPv6 is one of the most important steps we will take together to protect the internet as we know it,' Cerf said yesterday. 'It's as if the internet was originally designed with a limited number of telephone numbers, and we're soon going to run out.'
In November, Cerf warned that the issue was a 'serious boundary' to the growth of the medium and that it represents one of the 'biggest set of changes in the history of the internet'.
Content delivery networks Akamai – which delivers a quarter of all internet traffic – and Limelight Networks will join Facebook, Google and Yahoo in the 24-hour trial. Both YouTube and the international Google homepage, Google.com, will transition to IPv6 for the test period.
The technology giant has provided an IPv6 version of its search site since early 2008; Facebook has done so since mid-2009.
Leslie Daigle, the chief technology officer of the Internet Society, said 2011 is a 'pivotal' year in the roll-out of IPv6 and that the trial was an 'important milestone'.
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