The Internet is running out of addresses.

With everything from smartphones to Internet-linked appliances and cars getting online, the group entrusted with organizing the Web is running out of the "IP" numbers that identify destinations for digital traffic.

The touted solution to the problem is a switch to a standard called IPv6 that allows trillions of Internet addresses, while the current IPv4 standard provides a meager four billion or so.

ICANN has been calling for a change to IPv6 for years but websites and Internet service providers have been clinging to the old standard since the birth of the Internet.

"One of the reasons it has taken so long to change is that there is no obvious advantage or killer application for IPv6," Colitti said.

The number of addresses that IPv6 allows for amounts to 340 "undecillion" (followed by 36 zeroes); enough for a trillion people to each be assigned trillions of IP numbers, according to ICANN chief Rod Beckstrom.

With about seven billion people on the planet, the IPv4 protocol doesn't allow for everyone to have a gadget with its own online address.

The situation has been equated to not having enough telephone numbers for everyone.

Once the supply of IPv4 addresses ICANN distributes to the five regional centers around the world are gone, computers and other gadgets might have to start sharing instead of having unique identifying numbers.

"You will start to share with your neighbors, and that causes problems because applications can't distinguish you apart," Colitti said. "If your neighbor ends up in a blacklist, you will too."

World IPv6 Day will start at 0001 GMT on June 8.

In a worst case scenario, running out of IPv4 addresses with no switch to IPv6 would mean new gadgets wouldn't be able to connect to the Internet because addresses weren't available, according to ICANN.

(Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)

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(Agencies)