The Internet Protocol (IP) communications standard enables the routing of internet traffic, supporting one of the really fundamental functions of the Web. Every device that connects to a network is provided an IP address which like a mailing address, signifies the destination for information packets. Since the first days of the World Wide Web, computing devices have used 32-bit IP addresses accessible through Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4), which has existed since the early 1980s and continues to be the IP variant which routes the great bulk of Internet traffic.
Internet providers purchase iP addresses from regional Internet registries. ARIN created a waitlist as it’s run through its whole inventory of IPv4 addresses for all those ISPs that need new IP addresses.
The 32-bit nature of IPv4 means this variant of Internet Protocol can support a maximum of about 4.3 billion IP addresses. The growing Internet of Things sector is likely to contain 50 billion apparatus by the year 2050 as we have reported here. How are we to adapt our Internet- fridges and connected toothbrushes with merely a fraction of the IP addresses needed for ubiquitous Internet access?
The response comes in the most recent version of Internet Protocol development, called Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6). Once IPv6 takes root, there is a lot of elbow room for the Internet of Things.