Kenyans have been asked to deploy the next generation Internet protocol-GIN to avoid any disruption when the current one gets obsolete.

The chairman of the Kenya Network Information Center-KENIC says the world is now adopting the new Internet Protocol version IPv6 to avoid disruption after the depletion of the IPv4 currently in use. Expert predicts that IPv4 will run out by 2011.

Internet Protocol (IP) addresses are used to route traffic on the Internet and can be seen as the backbone of the Internet. Examples of IPs are dot Ke for Kenya dot Uk, for the United Kingdom or even dot za for South Africa.

These addresses are used to uniquely identify hosts that are connected to the web.

Due to the growth of the internet in the world where we have Tvs cameras, vehicles robots among others connected to the internet there are 4 billion addresses worldwide out of the 6.5 billion people, which the older version cannot cope with.

Mugambi says KENIC in partnership with other stakeholders such as CCK, the Kenya ICT board and other players in the sector have embarked on a campaign to sensitive the public on the importance of deploying the new network.

Benefits of using the new IPv6 includes ease of connection to the internet, web security and a large address space that supports large number of devices and domains.