The 6th of June 2012 is World IPv6 Launch Day-- the day internet pioneer Vint Cerf describes as the launch of the "21st century internet," following on last year's one-day World IPv6 Day.
Why do we need IPv6? The current internet protocol we rely on (IPv4) has space for 2^32 (4.3 billion) addresses, a seemingly large but actually limited number. IPv6 is much larger, since it expands the limit to 2^128 (over 340 trilion, trillion trillion) addresses.
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) ran out of addresses to allocate to the Regional Internet Registries back in February 2011.
Most devices and operating systems released within the past 5 support IPv6-- the problem is getting everyone, from websites to service providers, to support it. Google, Facebook, Microsoft Bing and Yahoo already do, and transition should start over the coming months.
Happy World IPv6 Launch Day everybody!
