Techies Ramp Up For Internet’s Next Incarnation

The 500 technologists hunkered down in the Reston Hyatt this week are plotting the best way to push us onto the new Internet.

They assume everyone’s heard that there’s a new Internet coming. Didn’t know we needed an upgrade? Yes, the one we’re working on now is a bit antiquated, they say nonchalantly, and it’s about time we moved to a sleeker model.

"What we’ve found over the last 10 years is that we need to do a number of things to improve [the Internet]," said Rod Murchison , senior director of product management for Juniper Networks of Sunnyvale, Calif. The current Internet simply wasn’t designed to handle the volume of users and devices that are tapping into it, he adds.

But out there in the ether, waiting to be accepted and adopted, Murchison says, is an Internet that can handle all the needs of the growing digital society. Those in the know call it " IPV6 ," short for Internet Protocol Version 6. (For the curious, we’re currently using Version 4 — Version 5 never really got off the ground.)

The essential advantage of Version 6 is that it can expand to give Internet addresses not only to every cell phone, iPod and BlackBerry that will eventually come online, but also to Web-enabled sensors that will someday be scattered around our homes, cars and communities, allowing users to control more of their world through the Internet.

By Ellen McCarthy

Full Story: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/25/AR2005052501760.html