World IPv6 Day is scheduled to take place on Wednesday 8 June, in order to test the compatibility of hundreds of websites with the IPv6 protocol.

The reason for this experiment is that the current internet protocol has effectively run out of space. A rapidly declining space for addresses on the current IPv4 protocol and the web's continued expansion through mobile devices necessitated the rollout of IPv6.

ARIN (the American Registry for Internet Numbers) says IPv4 addresses will run out before the end of the year. IPv6 technology should provide billions more addresses to accommodate new users and devices.

IPv6 has been around since 1999, but the protocol only works if ISPs and hardware are set up for it - thus Wednesday will be a 24-hour test of the protocol.

According to the World IPv6 day website: "The goal is to motivate organizations across the industry - internet service providers, hardware makers, operating system vendors and web companies - to prepare their services for IPv6 to ensure a successful transition as IPv4 address space runs out."

Over 300 websites will be taking part in the test, including Google, Yahoo and Facebook.
The IPv6 website also allows users to run tests to see if operating systems, browsers and hardware can handle the IPv6 protocol.

It is estimated that 99.5 per cent of all users should have no problems accessing sites on the protocol, thought IPv4 will still be around to help bridge the transition.

Written by Chris Tate
 

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