Anthony Doesburg: Down-to-earth benefits promised by infinite internet

What does the problem of dairy farm effluent have in common with IPv6, the new internet addressing scheme? The answer: the latter could assist in disposing of the former, by helping gauge when conditions are right for spreading it over the land.

First though, the hardware and software that ensure data flows across the internet need to be upgraded to work with IPv6, or internet protocol version 6. Work on that has been going on for several years but a crunch is coming next year when internet addresses available using the decades-old IPv4 scheme are expected to run out.

Every computer and other device connected to the internet needs an IP address, and the OECD warned in 2008 that once IPv4's 4 billion possible addresses were allocated, unless a new scheme was adopted, the internet would stop growing.

It urged governments to take a lead in moving to IPv6, by making it a compulsory feature of state-run websites and networks.

In New Zealand, a task force was set up last year to jolly along all the organisations with a part to play in migrating to IPv6. The good news, according to task force head Murray Milner, is that unlike Y2K, there is no drop-dead date - the internet will not grind to a halt when all the IPv4 addresses are used up.

"There's no panic but what we want to do is get people started [on migration]."

For the country's internet infrastructure to keep working smoothly, ISPs, telcos and organisations with public websites will need to be IPv6-compliant. Even organisations without an infrastructure role will have to attend to the issue so internet users will still be able to find them and so they'll be able to access the entire internet.

Compliance means having IPv6-capable networking hardware and software. This isn't a worry for you or me sitting at our computers - Windows, Linux and the Mac OS have been ready for IPv6 for years.

But it does represent a cost for organisations with lots of networked computers, although Milner maintains it won't be crippling if they make IPv6-capability a feature of equipment they buy during normal upgrades. But note the if.

"If you get forced into a situation where you have to adopt IPv6 quickly you could find it very expensive because you potentially could have to upgrade a lot of equipment and applications. We're suggesting you plan it over a period of time and work in with your normal refresh cycles."

Milner isn't anxious about the country's preparedness at this stage. But a couple of surveys suggest there's a fair degree of IPv6 lethargy. When the Department of Statistics asked ISPs last July about their IPv6 plans, more than a third said they didn't have any. A quarter, however, were already there.

An internetNZ survey, meanwhile, found awareness of the issue was low among management of organisations with 500-plus computers: 65 per cent of the 37 respondents were "not especially aware" of the risk/opportunity presented by IPv6 and 60 per cent also said IPv6 didn't feature on their IT roadmap.

Yet IPv6 offers a huge bonus. The new scheme effectively enables an infinite number of internet addresses - 340 billion billion billion billion of them - opening the way for a vast array of new devices to join the network.

That's where dairy effluent comes in. IPv6 will allow the connection of enormous numbers of sensors to the internet for monitoring everything from the structural integrity of bridges, to soil moisture levels and, if you're a dairy farmer, whether your effluent pond is about to overflow.

Wellington research and development company Harmonic, of which Milner is a director, has developed a system that uses the last two sensor types, and another that measures rainfall, to advise farmers of the best time for irrigating with effluent.

In too-dry conditions, effluent runs off into streams; too wet and it leaches into the groundwater. If the pond's full but the spraying conditions aren't right, you're going to have to think of something else.

The system, called Re:Generation, uses cellular connections to gather the sensor data which is displayed on the web. It is due for commercial release next month and is just the first of numerous potential uses of sensors on farms, according to Harmonic managing director Phil Shepherd.

"We're testing the water with some of these concepts. Farmers are among New Zealand's most innovative entrepreneurs and are always looking for a new angle on something, a new way to improve farm management and productivity."

Milner will be hoping others see the potential of IPv6 as well.Anthony Doesburg is an Auckland technology journalist.

No room on the net

* Every device connected to the net needs its own IP (internet protocol) address.

* The current system, IPv4, allows about 4 billion addresses.

* The available addresses are expected to run out in the next year or two.

* The next numbering system, IPv6, will allow vastly more addresses