Companies Join Forces to Fix Internet’s Biggest Problem in Decades

Imagine if the world ran out of phone numbers. Mobile providers could issue no more smartphones, businesses could create no new call centers, and the public would be left fighting over and recycling a diminishing amount of existing phone numbers. “That’s a similar situation that we’re in on the Internet,” says Facebook’s Donn Lee, pointing out that the Web’s billions of IP addresses are about to hit its max.

Lee is Facebook’s lead engineer on IPv6, or Internet Protocol version 6, the first new version of the Internet’s addressing system in decades, which will provide trillions and trillions more unique addresses on the Web. Every time you go online or print a document at work, you’re essentially dialing a unique number — called an IP address — to communicate with other devices and computer networks. It’s no different than visiting a friend: You might know the name of his apartment building, but you’ll need an address and zip code in order to locate it on a map. The Web works in the same way, but as the number of homes and businesses and devices connected to the Internet continues to increase exponentially, we’re rapidly running out of space online. And now it’s up to Internet giants such as Facebook, Google, and Yahoo to fix the problem before it’s too late.

The solution is simple to understand but difficult to implement. The original version of the Web’s addressing system, IPv4 (Internet Protocol version 4), had a shorter range of numbers — think a phone number with only, say, ten digits — that yielded roughly 4.3 billion available addresses or combinations. With IPv6, more digits are being added to that phone number, thus “increasing the number range,” Lee says. “The whole address is now 2^128, which is a huge, nearly infinite number.” According to one report, IPv6 will enable 340 trillion, trillion, trillion addresses. To transition to the upgraded system, however, IPv6 requires a big push from the Web’s biggest players, and on Wednesday, the first steps are being taking on World IPv6 Day, a 24-hour test to weed out any bugs and accelerate adoption, which some are calling the biggest experiment in the history of the Internet.

“We’re not switching to IPv6, we’re becoming bilingual: We’re continuing to support IPv4, but adding IPv6 compatibility,” Lee says. “It’s the first time it’s ever been done on global scale, with such huge participation around the world.”

The test marks a big transition on the Web from public to private initiative. In the 1970s, DARPA began funding research that would eventually lead to the creation of the first Internet Protocol address system. By the 1980s, DARPA rolled out the Internet to the public, with the fourth revision of the address system, IPv4, as its standard. Yet now, as IPv4 is all but tapped out, the solution to the problem won’t come from DARPA–the solution has fallen on the shoulders of big private tech companies. “World IPv6 Day was driven primarily by the large websites,” Lee says. “To my knowledge, there was no requests to the government to migrate to IPv6.”

Last summer, the ball started rolling at an IPv6 conference, when Google engineer Lorenzo Colitti began discussing a solution with Lee. “Lorenzo essentially had this idea that Google couldn’t turn on IPv6 by themselves, but if we could get a few of us to agree to turn it on at the same time, then we might be able to do it,” Lee recalls. “I went back back to Facebook and asked whether we could do this. After we talked it over, I called up Lorenzo, and said, ‘I think I can make this thing happen.’ And we thought we’d probably only need to add one more company. If any one pulled out, it would fall, like a three-legged stool. We essentially went to Yahoo and said, ‘Two of us are in, we need one more, can you be the third?’”

Tomorrow, as the World IPv6 Day test fires up, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo — traditionally competitors in the Internet landscape — will come together with hundreds of other major organizations to pool resources for a greater cause. “IPv6 is much bigger than any one company,” Lee says. “We felt that it was for the good of the Internet and future generations of the Internet.”

Official: ‘Car-mageddon’ possible with 405 closure

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Only in Los Angeles could a weekend freeway closure be compared to the end of the world.

Authorities will close Interstate 405 to do road work in July, and they took the step Monday of issuing a dire warning a full month ahead of time because of the potential traffic nightmare it could cause on one of the nation’s busiest freeways.

“This doesn’t need to be a car-mageddon,” county Supervisor Zev Yaroslovsky said at a news conference. “The best alternative route is to totally avoid the 405 area, completely avoid it, don’t come anywhere near it, don’t even think about coming to it. Stay the heck out of here.”

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa inadvertently made a point about the congestion, showing up a half-hour late because, you guessed it, there was heavy traffic on the freeway.

“If you think it’s bad now, let me just make something absolutely clear: On July 16th and 17th, it will be an absolute nightmare,” Villaraigosa said in a parking lot overlooking the freeway, where morning traffic sounded like a rushing river.

The mayor and other officials urged drivers to avoid the freeway during the work or do the unthinkable — spend a summer weekend at home.

A 10-mile stretch of the freeway linking the San Fernando Valley and the Westside will be closed for 53 hours for demolition of half of the Mulholland Bridge in Sepulveda Pass.

The work is part of a $1 billion project to add carpool lanes and make other improvements.

On a typical July weekend, about 500,000 vehicles use that section of freeway to get to major destinations such as the airport, beaches and interchanges to other major highways.

Jessica Ayres, who commutes on the freeway to get to her job at a hotel, plans to stay close to home in Playa del Rey that weekend.

“I’m going to walk to the grocery store, go get stuff, have a bonfire by the beach and not use my car,” Ayres said. “You don’t have to go on the 405 to have a good weekend.”

In past months, authorities have partially closed the freeway to reconstruct two other bridges on the corridor. They said a full shutdown was necessary to replace the 50-year-old Mulholland Bridge, and a weekend closure was necessary to minimize impact to traffic on a workday.

Officials are trying to get the word out well in advance of the shutdown, starting with electronic warning signs throughout California freeways and updates on social networking websites.

Subway rides will be free on that weekend, additional buses will be provided on certain lines, and traffic engineers will be standing by to monitor the ripple effect on roads and to manage key intersections.

The Getty Center and Skirball Cultural Center, two popular institutions along the pass that attract thousands of visitors on weekends, will close. Airport officials were coordinating with airlines and car rental companies so they can help the roughly 170,000 passengers expected to pass through LAX plan their ground transportation.

Officials said they expect that not everybody will heed the warning.

Yaroslovsky said he knows that some determined drivers will find a way to get around heavy traffic, as they did when the magnitude-6.7 Northridge earthquake in 1994 shut down a well-traveled portion of Interstate 10 in the mid-city area for 66 days.

“Angelenos know how to drive and navigate traffic jams and how to avoid them,” he said.

Advanced word on dire road conditions, though, was shown to work during the 1984 summer Olympics and a 1987 visit by Pope John Paul II. The city braced for the worst, but traffic flowed freely because many people stayed off the freeways.

Villaraigosa suggested that residents could spend the mid-July weekend barbecuing in their backyard.

An official with the California Department of Transportation had an even more quaint idea: Spend time getting to know the neighborhood.

“You’re going to be surprised at what you’re going to discover in your own neighborhood if you take that opportunity,” Michael Miles said.

Crews will demolish half of the Mulholland Bridge that weekend, and another full freeway closure is expected later to tear down the other half.

Nintendo debuts Wii U

Nintendo, for the majority of this console generation, has been content to play its own game. Now it’s ready to take the fight to Microsoft and Sony.

The company on Tuesday unveiled its next generation home video game machine — dubbed Wii U — that will be flush with the high-definition graphics gamers have come to expect, as well as a unique, touch-screen controller. It’s scheduled to launch in 2012.

Like the Wii, the Wii U (which, despite the name, is not an institute of higher learning) revolves around and innovative controller. Equipped with a 6.2-inch LCD touch-screen, a camera, a microphone and an accelerometer, the controller acts as a sort of fusion of a gamepad, tablet PC and a handheld gaming system.

The system will allow players to transfer games from their TV to the controller seamlessly, something that will be handy for families with a single TV. In other words, Johnny won’t need to turn off his Super Mario Bros. outing so that dad can watch the Cowboys game.

Nintendo also ran video demos showing off some of the ways in which the controller will interact with the console. Players will be able to ‘sling’ elements from the controller to the TV, such as using the touch screen to throw shurikens at targets on their HD set.

Users will also be able to use it as a digital sketch pad, to have video chats and to surf the web.

Nintendo showed several demos for the system and said it had a version of its hit Super Smash Bros. in the works. The system’s high definition capabilities put it on par with both the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 — and that seems to have won over developers, who have been slowly moving away from the Wii as sales of that system have faltered.

Among the publishers who have pledged support are Electronic Arts, THQ and Sega, who plan to bring games like Darksiders 2, Aliens: Colonial Marines and Assassin’s Creed to the system.

The Wii was accused to being so focused on attracting a new type of player that the core gamer, who traditionally has made up the bulk of Nintendo’s loyalist customer base, was left out. Nintendo made it very clear that it hopes to win that audience back with Wii U, but doesn’t plan to abandon the masses who made the Wii so successful.

“Some hardware is seen as only appropriate for the most passionate players,” said Satoru Iwara, global president of Nintendo. “Others, like Wii, they say, seem to attract a large number of casual gamers. As an industry, what we haven’t achieved yet is a game platform that is equally satisfying for all players. This is exactly what we intend to create with our new platform.”

While the Wii U was the company’s primary focus at the event, it did announce several titles for the 3DS that should help the handheld system, which has seen sales stumble since its launch, regain ground. Super Mario 3D, Mario Kart 3D, a new Star Fox title and a game starring Nintendo icon Kid Icarus are all scheduled to hit stores this year.

And the 25^th anniversary of its indomitable Legend of Zelda franchise hardly went unnoticed. Effective immediately, 3DS owners are able to download The Legend of Zenda: Link’s Awakening for free in the newly-launched eShop. Next week, the 3DS exclusive remake of the classic Ocarina of Time hits stores, and by the end of the year, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword will be out for the Wii.

In September, DSi owners will be able to freely download the four-player co-op game The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures. Before the end of the year, Nintendo plans to host a series of global symphony performances dedicated solely to the music of Zelda.

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