Today marked the day that the last Internet Protocol Version 4, IPv4, was assigned by ICANN. What does that mean for you? Nothing. An IP Address is an identifier that allows computers to communicate with each other over a network. Your computer does all the work for you, whether you have a 32-bit address, or a 128-bit address (which is what Internet Protocol Version 6, IPv6 is ), it does not matter because your computer is the one that will process this information, most all modern PCs are already configured to accept and utilize these type of addressing schemes. As noted in the Picture above.
What does this mean for Information Technology? Well, if you had a good core curriculum you were taught how to convert hexadecimal, and can convert them to numerical values if you really wanted to dive into the actual numerical scheme of an IP Architecture. But this knowledge really isn't necessary to maintain a sustainable Information System, that's what computers are for. The transfer of packets will either automatically become larger, because of immediate addition of 96 bits to the address, or the data transferred will be segmented smaller to accommodate for the increase of address size. Either way the transfer of information most likely also will not be affected. The routing of information through networks could possibly be affected by a millisecond, but to end users these numbers are transparent. The real affect will be to newly requested IP Addresses on a Public Domain will be IPv6 addresses. But if you are a savvy Network Administrator one understands the concept of Network Address Translation (NAT) and Port Address Translation (PAT), and will configure your network accordingly to the necessity of your Private IP Address Architecture.
Will there by another version of IP Protocols? Most likely... maybe in a hundred years, unless we happen to come across another race of beings in the galaxy that wish to join us to their hive in the near future. Let's just hope that the Internet Service Providers don't attempt to bamboozle the public in additional fees for it.
....Resistance is Futile....
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