Bangalore: The entire web is shifting their base to IPv6, the new Internet Protocol, as Internet Society is organizing the World IPv6 launch on June 6, 2012, a follow on event to the original World IPv6 day which was held last year.

Many websites and ISPs including Google, Facebook, Yahoo, At&T and Comcast have committed to enable IPv6 on their products and services from the day. Several ISPs also agreed to make IPv6 available automatically in their networks and make 1% of the wireless residential subscribers under IPv6 before the launch date.

Facebook has announced its participation in the event today. So from June 6, Facebook will support access through IPv6 and IPv4, which is the current protocol.  

According to John Donovan, CTO of AT&T, "We've seen unprecedented growth in network traffic over the past several years, and IPv6 is critical to the continuation of that growth.”

IPv6, which was earlier called as IP Next Gen (IPng), will be a replacement to IPv4 which allows 2^32 addresses which is around 4.3 billion. IPv4 is currently running out of address space. Ipv6 allows 2^128 address spaces which can support billions of devices to connect to internet and it will also improve the QoS (Quality of Service) parameters in services including video and audio.

The big problem with IPv6 is its backward incompatibility towards IPv4. So network and website operators should upgrade their hardware and software to support it.  

“As there are more IPv6 services, it becomes increasingly important for companies to accelerate their own deployment plans”, stated Leslie Daigle, Chief Information Technology Officer of Internet Society.