IPv6 and M2M

The rising use of M2M technology has brought to light an issue that seems inevitable. As more and more devices become connected we are seeing a much bigger push for the conversion to IPv6, driven mainly by the military; which have applied the rational that there is a shortage of IP addresses.

It is true; connecting millions of devices will increase the stress on the IPv4 addressing scheme. For years, the industry has played around the edges of making a transition from the older addressing scheme, Internet Protocol version 4, to the next level, which is IPv6. The reason is that the number of addresses available is nearing exhaustion. The move to IPv6 will increase the available addresses substantially. As some people know, June 8th is considered by many to be World IPv6Day. Two leading network vendors - Cisco and Verizon Business, have enlisted in an up and coming trial by fire of IPv6. Many others such as Google, Facebook, and Yahoo also plan on participating to show that they are fully capable of utilizing IPv6 with their products.

While all this talk has been going on I started to think; how will the M2M market be affected by all of this? It would seem that as more devices are being connected we would need a magnitude of IP addresses to facilitate the cause. That isn’t always the case, however. In some cases similar to a “smart” enabled home, all of the components communicate within an internal network inside the house and access the internet through one IP address; just as an apartment building may have dozens of living units but only one street address.

So while having more devices connected may not be a truly great reason for the push to IPv6, it is a valuable offering that is coming and I expect that it won’t be too far off. Some of the biggest transitions arrive stealthily. While machine-to-machine communication still sounds futuristic, it is here. One of the biggest questions that remain is just how far this is going to go.