IPv6 earns key endorsements : When will the next-gen IP successor emerge from the experimental phase? Just give it some time, say its wireless supporters.(Technology Information)

Why are wireless vendors rallying around next-generation IP? Because IP as we know it isn't going to be able to support the 'Net of the future as everything from cars to refrigerators connect to the network, and with wireless data and 3G networks taking off sooner than scheduled, IPv4 hasn't got much time.

The dot-com party is over, and just about everyone in the IT sector knows it. Hardly anyone from any Internet-related business makes a sales pitch to prospective customers or VCs without making a knowing reference to the month of April this year, when high-flying dot-com stocks experienced long overdue corrections as investors finally started to utter the word "profits."

Nowadays, dot-coms are focusing on developing realistic business models designed to bring faster returns on investment. But another problem has been facing the Internet -- the pending obsolescence of IP. Naturally, this isn't exactly a shocking revelation in and of itself. The IT industry has known for years that Internet Protocol version 4 -- the protocol whose general ubiquity in the public 'Net, private intranets and extranets worldwide has made the 'Net the commercial powerhouse it is today -- was not going to be able to handle the demands placed on the network in the new century, with problems ranging from security and complexity issues to the sheer number of IP addresses that would be required to support a universally connected world.

The solution -- IP version 6, the next-generation Internet protocol -- was recommended by the Internet Engineering Task Force six years ago in July 1994, and the recommendation was approved and made a proposed …