Autonomous driving and the IoT could lead to major changes

Both autonomous driving and the IoT could lead to major changes in how the internet works, but IP is a stubborn incumbent. No networking protocol has experienced the success of TCP/IP. Thirty years ago, it seemed possible that IBM might have fended it off with its SAA family of protocols or we might have ended up using the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) family of protocols. But, thanks to the opening up of the US Arpanet once TCP/IP had been developed, the other options were quickly swept aside. IPv4 itself is so successful that long after the internet was meant to have run out of addresses, IPv6 penetration remains stubbornly below 30 per cent globally, according to Google’s analysis and growth has been tailing off after reaching an apparent asymptote in early 2018.