At the end of 2003, the German domain registry, DENIC, started operating a name server (a.nic.de AAAA 2001:608:6::5) with a new IPv6 address. In future it is also going to be possible to find this name server at this same address in the Root Zone. Today, DENIC had initiated a corresponding change in the entries. Last week, ICANN, the body that coordinates the Internet internationally, changed its practice and admitted IPv6 entries in the Root Zone – a move that had been under discussion for a long time previously. The Top Level Domain .de is thus one of the first in the world to make its name servers available with the new addresses. DENIC is currently considering if and when, as a follow-on measure, glue records might also be introduced in the .de zone.

The IPv6 address protocol permits a very much larger number of computer addresses than does the current standard. Instead of addresses with a length of 32 bits, as is the case for IPv4, IPv6 permits addresses with a length of 128 bits. The address space thus grows to a total of around 3.4*10^38 addresses. The transition to this new standard is therefore a big step towards a further broadening of the Internet and will help satisfy the growing needs for additional IP addresses. So IPv6 is of importance not only for the Internet Community but also for the global economy. For several years to come, IPv4 and IPv6 addresses are going to coexist in both the Root Zone and the Top Level Domains that come immediately below it.