Pleased to meet you: IPv6

There is a good chance that if you were asked about it, you wouldn't know whether your computer has its own IPv6 address. Much more surprisingly, even if you own a successful website or blog and invest resources in promoting it, in its quality, and in its browsing speed, your answer might not change. Most site owners wouldn't know whether their site has a truly unique address, namely IPv6, or whether it still operates only with the old, familiar IP (the IPv4, which contrary to common belief is, for the most part, not a unique address but serves many users, with all the implications of that, including on matters relating to its promotion in search engines). 

In Israel this is less noticeable, but for some time now a technological revolution with far-reaching implications has been gaining momentum, in which the internet is moving to work with an innovative communication protocol, theIPv6, instead of the existing IPv4, whose allocated addresses have run out to date.

The leading organizations and well-known systems have already completed the move to the new protocol. It is currently not possible to upload to the AppStore an app that is not IPv6-compatible. The hosting services of giants such as Amazon and Google, companies such as facebook, the well-known operating systems (Linux, Windows, OS mac, Android, Xbox,) and in fact every organization and significant system that each and every one of us knows has completed the required process and is accessible over IPv6.

In Israel the adoption process is advancing slowly (only about 10% have gone through it). Among the organizations that have adopted the new technology are the internet providers Xfone (018), HOT Net, Internet Rimon, as well as the web hosting company uPress (which also conducted a number of comparison experiments between the old protocol and the new one, and found a performance improvement under the new protocol). The implementation process is not simple and requires dealing with various complexities, but by all estimates the internet will move to IPv6 in the coming years, and the old, current protocol will gradually shrink until it probably disappears.

The Israeli Internet Association has been working from the start to encourage the move to the new protocol, andthe Ministry of Communications instructed the local internet providers to work with the new protocol until the end of October this year. It can be estimated that in Israel too, the many advantages, together with market forces and the demand that will come from site owners and businesses, will do their part, and more and more significant organizations will carry out the required processes, complex as they may be, and adapt themselves to IPv6.

What exactly is an internet protocol, what is IPv6, and why is it replacing IPv4

IP, or in Hebrew translation: Internet Protocol, is the language by which computers "talk" to each other. Every computer, and in fact every end device connected to the internet, has a numeric address that we all know as an IP. This address is made up of thirty-two bits, composed of four numbers separated by dots. The total number of addresses that can be produced this way is about 4 billion computers and end devices. An impressive number by any measure. But the internet is developing at tremendous speed, the number of users grows from day to day, more countries are entering the picture, and the "Internet of Things" is gaining enormous momentum. From moment to moment more and more basic, everyday equipment is connecting to the internet, and the demand for addresses is growing at a dizzying pace.

In practice, already now, largely due to inefficient allocation, almost all addresses under the old protocol have been allocated (the European Internet registry RIPE, which manages the distribution of IP addresses in Europe, announced a few months ago that it has no IPv4 addresses left to distribute).

Global internet organizations foresaw the problem years ago and began a deep process of deliberation well in advance. The end result of that process was the development of the new protocol, IPv6, which expanded the possible address space to an "imaginary", inconceivable number of 340 trillion trillion trillion addresses. In various places it has been written in this context that from now on it will be possible to assign every grain of sand its own IP address. The pace of technological progress teaches that it is better not to prophesy in these matters, but still, and certainly in the foreseeable future, it is likely that every end device, at least on our planet, will receive its own truly unique address.

Wait a moment, my blog has existed for a long time and works great, so what do I need this for?

The connection between the physical world and the digital world is advancing at tremendous speed and the boundaries are blurring. More and more people get to enjoy the fruits. The continent of Africa is awakening, new countries; billions of mobile phones, computers and all kinds of end devices. All of them connect to the internet. All of them need addresses. The transition, therefore, is inevitable. Unlike Israel, most developed countries have been actively working in recent years to encourage the process, and in practice almost every large organization in the world, certainly the leading organizations, has already undergone the implementation process or is close to it. It can be assumed that in the coming years the two protocols will coexist side by side, but already now there are sites that can be accessed by IPv6 clients only. In certain parts of the world it is currently not possible to get an IPv4 address at all and browsing is done only by the new protocol. Presumably, as time goes by, the "price" that an organization whose site is not made accessible over the new protocol will pay, in everything related to performance quality, security, promotion, etc., will be significant.

According to the instructions of Israel's Ministry of Communications, by the end of October this year (2020) local internet providers must switch to the new protocol. As mentioned, companies such as Xfone and Hot Net, as well as the hosting company uPress – already there. These are still low percentages relative to the wider world, but in the end everyone will have to complete the move at one point or another. It seems there is no obstacle to this.

The various implications of IPv6: security, quality, speed, and, as always, business opportunities too

Besides the solution to the "internet address crisis", the new protocol brings innovation and significant advantages in various respects, such as information security, data confidentiality and reliability, authentication and more. At the user experience level, IPv6 brings a significant improvement. Various international organizations also describe a significant performance improvement thanks to the improved routing capabilities (facebook for example describes an improvement of between 20% and 40%).

As an aside, we note that the Israeli web hosting company uPress (the only Israeli company in the field of WordPress site hosting whose customers' sites are adapted to IPv6) conducted various comparison experiments, in which browsing speed was measured between pairs of computers, once by the old existing protocol and once by the new one. The results were significant – the speed measured over IPv6 was several times higher (it can be assumed that the fact that local Internet providers have not yet created various traffic restrictions – since so few players in Israel use IPv6 – has a great influence on this).

On the commercial level, the move to IPv6 embodies clear advantages and business potential that organizations will no doubt translate in a variety of creative ways. Beyond branding the organization as innovative and advanced, and beyond the new standards it will meet anyway compared with sites that have not internalized the change, the adapted site will enjoy various advantages in SEO and ranking on the web. While the IP addresses that exist today, under the old protocol, are for the most part not truly "unique", the meaning of the move to the new protocol, IPv6, is that every site, blog, and even personal computer now has its own dedicated, unique number. It can be assumed that, as in any revolution, those who make the change first will enjoy significant advantages in search engines and across the web in general, relative to others who stay behind.