OECD member states throw their weight behind IPv6

Representatives of 42 member states in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) issued a declaration in which they expressed their support for the next-generation internet protocol. At its Ministerial Meeting on the Future of the Internet Economy, held in Seoul, Korea, on Wednesday, the organisation said the switch to the new version of IP was necessary to connect billions of people to the internet. IPv4 addresses are quickly running out, so the signatories want to have the new version of the internet protocol, IPv6, adopted quickly. In one of the items in the declaration that is more political than technical, they call on governments and private companies that use a large number of IPv4 addresses to lead the switch over.

Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) and such well-known individuals as Google's Vice President Vint Cerf had already argued along these lines. Geoff Huston, research director at Asia's RIR APNIC, explained in Seoul that fundamental, deep intervention would be required in hundreds of millions of computers, a process that would not be simple or fast. Huston regularly calculates the remaining time until IPv4 addresses have been completely used up. Now, the end is expected to come as early as 2011. 85 per cent of all IPv4 addresses have already been assigned. The RIRs are currently conducting heated debates about rules that would allow or prevent the trading of IPv4 addresses. Special assignment rules for the last remaining blocks are also being discussed.

Despite their call for quick action and greater investments, the RIRs do not want governments to get involved. Huston warns that regulation would call into question the self-regulatory concept that has proven so successful up to now and is the basic principle behind the internet. RIR representatives applauded cyber law guru Lawrence Lessig when he spoke of a modest approach for regulators. As he put it, no one older than 22 should imagine that they know how the internet really works. One thing seems certain: the RIRs must be pleased with the declaration's prudent wording.

(Monika Ermert)

(trk)