Conversion of the technology is based on a global computer network Internet. The data exchange between the participants work on the basis of the so-called Internet Protocol (IP). An important aspect is the assignment of IP addresses. As the Internet but steadily grows, the addresses are now scarce. The news portal news.de explained the background and the proposed solution. People such as Viacom would likely agree.

Currently, IP addresses are based on the IPv4 standard, the fourth version of the Internet Protocol. This standard is about 20 years old and now reaches its limits, because 95 percent of all available IP addresses are already assigned. A total maximum 4.3 billion unique addresses are possible with the previous technology. Is working on the problem for a long time, and a new version of the Internet Protocol is already available. Up to 340 Undecillion addresses can be associated with the successor version of IPv4, IPv6. The changeover from the old to the new protocol expires largely unnoticed for the user.

Since the two standards do not compatible are, companies such as Deutsche Telekom for example in bilingual technology, when both protocols are supported. The advantages of the new Protocol consist of, inter alia, enabling a higher quality of service for multimedia applications over Internet connections, such as IPTV.