Govt draws up roadmap for moving into new IP version

With the domain name bandwidth for web addresses expected to get exhausted by March 2012, the government today said that it has drawn up a roadmap for moving into a newer version of Internet Protocol (IP).

"IPv4, the initial version of the address platform, is already overburdened in India with 18.4 million registered addresses, and is expected to exhaust the available space globally by March 2012," an official statement said.

This initiative of the government has come at a most appropriate time, when a concerted effort is required on the part of all stakeholders to migrate to a higher platform, which is IPv6, it added.

IPv6, which has a much larger address space than IPv4, provides flexibility in allocating addresses and routing traffic.

For this, all telecom and Internet service providers (ISPs) are required to become IPv6-compliant by December 2011 and offer IPv6 services from then on, it said.

As part of the roadmap, the government has also decided to form an IPv6 Task Force in Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for timely implementation of IPv6 in the country.

The roadmap and formation of the IPv6 Task Force together would enable citizens to start using IPv6 services by March 2012, the statement said.

"The new Internet Protocol will give practically unlimited addresses, besides a host of new and advanced features, for running future communication networks," it said.

All Central and State government ministries and departments, including PSUs, will switch to IPv6 services by March 2012.

IPv6 is already being implemented in the US, EU and Japan, among other countries.