Growing adoption of the Internet by consumers drives several markets such as home devices, mobile wireless equipment, transportation, media and others to introduce a new generation of products that embed an Internet Protocol (IP). Global IP connectivity pushes services towards the edge of the network, where a particular device needs to be reached, served or monitored. This requires that Internet-enabled devices can be assigned and use globally unique IP addresses. The need for always-on environments to be globally reachable precludes IP address conversion, pooling, and temporary allocation techniques, and the “plug and play” always-on consumer Internet appliance requirements further increase IP address pressure.

Growth and innovation on the Internet depends on the continued availability of IP address space. The subject of IPv4 address depletion is important to most, if not all, organizations which rely on IP and Internet capabilities to support their businesses. The amount of IPv4 address space is limited and it is generally accepted that the remaining pool of unallocated IPv4 address space is likely to be fully allocated within two to four years. IP address registries around the globe announced this year that due to the pending depletion of existing IPv4 address space, “migration to IPv6 is necessary for any applications that require ongoing availability … of contiguous IP number resources” . IPv6 addresses the urgent need emerging markets have for additional IP address space. IPv6 provides the necessary address space for future growth.