Dubai: Corporations must prepare for the global transition to the next generation of IP addresses, warns RIPE NCC, the regional internet registry overseeing IT infrastructure in Europe, Middle East and portions of Asia.

A shrinking storehouse of available web addresses based upon Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) is estimated at less than one per cent, forcing a new era of web IP address allocation under next-generation IPv6.

The shortage can be attributed to the fact that existing IPv4 addresses are shorter than IPv6 addresses and contain a smaller number of possible combinations that will be exhausted, officials predict, by next September 24.

Nigel Titley, RIPE NCC chairman, said businesses should consider updating internet systems and networks to operate under both internet protocols.

"The exhaustion of the global pool of IPv4 is certainly not a reason for panic, but it does represent a significant milestone in the history of the internet," Titley told Gulf News ahead of a Miami press conference on Thursday by Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) to warn of dwindling IPv4 addresses.

"The internet community has been aware of IPv4 depletion since the mid-1990s and many ISPs are prepared for IPv6 adoption.

Yet, the corporate world is yet to wake up to the need to deploy IPv6 in their networks, and some have not yet prioritised investment in the new hardware and software required to make their networks IPv6 ready. As the pool of IPv4 is now empty, it is critical that all companies make IPv6 adoption a priority."

Titley recommended that corporations ensure that they integrate new technologies that enable their systems to operate on old and future software.

"The best option is for organisations to ensure that their networks are ‘dual stack', which means that they can carry internet traffic over both IPv4 and IPv6," Titley said.

"IPv4 depletion doesn't mean that the internet will stop working, but if organisations fail to adopt IPv6, this will jeopardise the growth of the internet as new internet-enabled devices are no longer able to connect to the global network."

Last month, the last two of the remaining five batches of global IPv4 addresses were awarded to APNIC, the regional internet registry of the Asia Pacific.

Each batch contains roughly 16 million available IPv4 addresses. By contrast, new IPv6 capacity has the capability to provide in future an estimated "340 trillion, trillion, trillion [addresses], providing a hugely expanded address space and safeguarding internet innovation now and in the years to come."

Goverments and businesses are being urged to modernise their systems as soon as is financially plausible to head off the higher costs of delaying the new global conversion to IPv6.

Titley said that "Middle East organisations need to ensure that their networks, hardware and software are IPv6-enabled. This does require some financial investment. While some regard delaying IPv6 deployment as a cost-cutting strategy, this is position is near-sighted, as global adoption of IPv6 is inevitable.

"No matter what sector you operate in, it is likely that delaying investment in IPv6 will result in greater costs down the road when the RIPE NCC is no longer able to allocate large blocks of IPv4 address space to network operators in the Middle East. Last-minute deployment and poor planning are likely to escalate costs."

Part of the push toward IPv6 is due in part to the fact that an explosion in mobile devices being used to connect on the internet around the world is leading to the rapid depletion of the older IP addressing system.

"Internet Protocol addresses are critical — without them the Internet simply would not work," Titley said. "This is a major turning point in the on-going development of the internet," said Rod Beckstrom, president and CEO of Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann).

"No one was caught off guard by this. The internet technical community has been planning for IPv4 depletion for some time. But it means the adoption of IPv6 is now of paramount importance, since it will allow the Internet to continue its amazing growth and foster the global innovation we've all come to expect."