have u been reading a Murphy’s book??

Many Names Many Addresses

Are there enough resources – IP names and numbers – to achieve this? It’s frequently said that IPv6 numbers are virtually limitless. True of false?

There are several interesting ways to view to view the number of internet names and addresses that will soon be be available under IPv6, here are two of them.

* Today’s Internet runs on IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4) with 32-bits in each address, allowing about 4 billion address combinations. We are now in a transition to IPv6 (see IPv5 here) which will expand the address space to 128-bits. I’m told that’s enough address to provide a name for every atom in the planet’s surface – 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 names to be exact.
* Here’s another way to look at this huge 128-bit address space: i.e., 4.3 billion total IPv4 addresses versus 3.4 x 1038 total IPv6 addresses. If you imagine one IPv4 address being one picometer long (one trillionth of a meter), the entire IPv4 address space would be approximately 4.3 millimeters long – the length of an average sized ant. If each IPv6 address was one picometer long, the length of the entire IPv6 address space would be approximately 3.4 billion trillion trillion kilometers, or 36 billion light years. The farthest visible object in the universe from the Earth is estimated to be 30 billion light years away. (Contributors Note: This is based on data from the September 2006 CED Magazine. Sounds far out!)

While this sounds like an adequate supply of addresses, it depends on how they are used. For example, that 36 billion light year length is one picometer wide. Double its width, to two picometers wide, and it’s “only” 18 billion light years long. But make that width 53 kilometers, the distance from the southern tip of Staten Island to the top of the Bronx, and what is the distance that line goes out into space? Now, spread those names over the 30 kilometer wide of the city, and what is the volume, i.e., how far out does it go?

Here’s the crazy math.

Let’s simplify and transform IPv6′s 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses / names into picometers. You get 340,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 picometers, each representing one address / name.

53 kilometers = 53,000,000,000,000,000 picometers (or pmeter).

So 53… pmeters divided into 340… pmeters = 6,500,000,000,000,000,000,000 pmeters. That is, a north to south wall of IPv6 addresses one pmeter wide would be 6,500,000,000,000,000,000,000 pmeters high.
Now divide 6,500,000,000,000,000,000,000 pmeters by 30 kilometers (the city’s width) or 30,000,000,000,000,000 pmeters and you get (30,000,000,000,000,000 into 6,500,000,000,000,000,000,000 = 30 / 6,500,000 =) 216,666 pmeters. That is, evenly spread out, and using a pmeter to represent an IP address, the city would be covered by 216,666 addresses /names per pmeter.

216,666 pmeters = 2.16666e-7 meter. My math notation fails me here. But if we compare 216,666 pmeters with the IPv4 ant (with 4 billion addresses), we have a very, very, very slim layer of names covering the city.

So much for the unlimited address space.

But lets move a picometer back to reality. We don’t need to track objects or locations to the picometer level. What size objects are we seeking to monitor? (Once again, contribute to the Privacy and GIS page.) By today’s standard, the smallest RFID device measures 0.15 mm × 0.15 mm, and is thinner than a sheet of paper (7.5 micrometers). Factoring this out, if we were concerned with items the size of RFIDs, the volume of our address space (the vertical of our city) would be ???, enough to make using IP numbers in a GIS system a practical consideration.

Street Furniture

There are practical uses of IP addresses, like in managing public spaces. What about assigning a IP address to every location? For example, we might assign each sign post, street light, bench, or statue an IP number and name. Next, imagine linking a name to a website. Now imagine someone sees a neglected (or loved) work of art in Prospect Park and wants to learn its provenance.

First thing they’ll need to do is “connect” with the statue by locating it’s website. They can do this be finding it’s name etched on the statue, or, if its been obscured, locating it on a GIS service like OASIS. (If an object is unnamed, one might assign a name. This might have application outside the realm of street furniture.)

Next, one can connect to this website to learn about the statue. Or one might add info, wiki-style. If the romance continues, s/he might decide to help assure its upkeep by connecting with others similarly concerned, via the website.

Relationships of this sort can be built when creating a clean-slate .nyc TLD. It will empower public involvement with their management and maintenance.

Well, you might say, interesting idea, but there are a lot of locations. You’d need a lot of numbers.