Web guru slams EU's IP warning

A top web guru has branded the EU's cautionary stance on the looming shortage of internet space "misleading".

The report released last week claimed the arrival of 3G networks will increase the demand for internet address space before the next protocol is introduced.

This claim has now been disputed by one of the inventors of the IP protocols, Dr Paul Francis, who says the report does not show why the net needs the new version.

He told silicon.com: "If you read carefully, however, you are hard pressed to find a single statement that explicitly states why IPv6 is critical. Much of the discussion focuses on the difficulty of doing peer-to-peer, but it never comes out and says that peer-to-peer does not work."

Proponents of the new protocol IPv6 claim the upgraded version of the old Ipv4 will allow more addresses to be included, but Dr Francis advised operators to practise caution when they consider upgrading their entire networks.

He added: "I think that European operators should take a cautious approach towards IPv6. For instance, they should fully understand how every service they want to offer works with both IPv4 and IPv6.

"If any given service can be profitably offered with IPv4, then they should only move to IPv6 if relatively savings in offering the service with IPv6 can be clearly shown," he said.

Check out the original story here: http://www.silicon.com/a51525