Korea to begin Web address overhaul in 2011

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

Business

Tue, October 3, 2023 | 05:48

Korea to begin Web address overhaul in 2011

Posted : 2010-09-16 16:54

Updated : 2010-09-16 16:54

By Kim Tong-hyung

Korea will begin to roll out the next generation of Internet addresses for online devices next year to deal with the dwindling number of available Internet protocol (IP) addresses as the Web grows beyond computers.

According to officials at the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country will start updating its core Internet addressing system to a new format known as IP version 6 (IPv6) next June.

IPv6 will be first tested on commercial telecommunications services such as major search sites and electronic commerce (e-commerce) destinations, IP television (IPTV) and third-generation (3G) mobile telephony through a number of trial operations, KCC officials said.

The devices and networks for potential fourth generation (4G) communications systems Long Term Evolution (LTE) and mobile WiMAX will also be using IPv6.

However, the new format will not be immediately adopted on national communications networks such as electric power control systems and data communications networks where stability is paramount.

Internet service providers predict that about 45 percent of their subscriber networks will be switched to IPv6 by 2013, with their backbone networks completing the transition by then.

Every device that goes online is allocated a unique IP address, and the current format, IPv6, provides over 4 billion addresses. However, there are concerns that the pool of numbers is due to run out in the near future as more people around the world connect to the Web on an increasing number of devices.

The Korean government is just one of many that are pushing a switch to IPv6, which is hoped to provide billions of extra IP addresses as the Web begins to move beyond computers and mobile phones to virtually every consumer electronics device including televisions and domestic appliances.

The movement toward “cloud computing,” describing a new era of Internet usage in which information and software are delivered over the Web, rather than through desktop computers, is expected to accelerate the exhaustion of current Internet addresses as well by having more devices connected to the Web.

This has led to concerns about the possible shortage of addresses under IPv4.

The Korean aspirations to become one of the world’s first countries to convert its electricity networks into “smart grids” also explains the urgency for the IPv6 transition.

Smart grids, which can be bluntly described as the “electricity Internet,” deliver electricity from suppliers to consumers using information technology.

차세대 인터넷 주소 IPv6로의 전환 내년부터

한국에서는 내년부터 차세대 인터넷 주소 체계인 IPv6로의 전환이 본격화될 전망이다. 이는 인터넷 기능이 컴퓨터를 넘어서 더 많은 기기에 도입되면서 기존 IPv4 주소체계로는 이에 대한 수요대응이 불가능할 것이라는 전망 때문이다.

방송통신위원회는 포털, 온라인 쇼핑몰 등 상용 웹서비스, IPTV, 3G 이동통신서비스에 IPv6를 적용하는 시범사업을 금년 중에 추진할 예정이다. LTE 등 4세대 후보 차세대 이동통신 등에도 IPv6가 적용될 예정이나 데이터통신망, 전력제어통신 안정성이 요구되는 국가 주요통신망은 당분간 IPv4를 유지하기로 했다.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr