Because of the enormous growth of the Internet and the proliferation of connected devices, the addresses in the current system - known as IPv4 - are running out. A few years ago, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) set forward to remedy this. While IPv4 can handle just over 4 billion addresses, IPv6 spans 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000.
South African company Internet Solutions (IS) has been approached by AfriNIC, the governing body for IP addresses in Africa, for assistance in moving its IPv6 Laboratory from Mauritius to South Africa. "IPv6 needs to be much more widely adopted, so we see this as a development exercise," says Prenesh Padayachee, chief technology officer at IS. "We need to uplift engineering skills around IPv6 in a cost-effective and efficient way, so we're supporting the AfriNIC Lab in order to help achieve this," Padayachee told ITWeb.
IS has the second-largest IPv6 allocation for the AfriNIC region. It is able to provide 2 535 301 200 456 460 000 000 000 000 000 addresses - an allocation that Padayachee says is unlikely to run out in the foreseeable future.
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For more information, go to www.ietf.org.
