Trillions of new internet addresses as new system enabled
Trillions of new internet addresses can now be produced, following the launch of Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6).
Google and Facebook are amongst the companies which have enabled the system to encourage widespread use of the standard, to prevent the internet from running out of web addresses.
Vint Cerf, chief internet evangelist at Google, explained in a blog post: “The Internet we've relied on so far has space for 2^32 addresses—about 4.3 billion. The new, larger IPv6 expands the limit to 2^128 addresses—more than 340 trillion, trillion, trillion! Enough for essentially unlimited growth for the foreseeable future.”
IPv6 will work alongside current system IPv4 for the next few years to make sure devices don’t stop working, with an ICANN spokesperson saying that most users will not notice any difference.