Content originally posted in LPCWare by ktownsend on Fri Mar 04 15:41:54 MST 2011
The world isn't going to end because you don't have any new IPv4 addresses, at least for embedded. In reality, you're device is probably connected to a router in your house with a single external IP, and you just use an internal IP address (192.168.x.x, etc.). If you need a dedicated IP for each node, you're already probably talking about an expensive project.
The future is definately in IPv6, but alas the reality, especially for embedded devices, isn't there yet. You can look at Contiki which does have IPv6 support (it's written primarilly by the same guy who wrote uIP for IPv4, Adam Dunkels). But it's a bit bigger than IPv4, and Contiki tends to be pretty AVR-centric though there is a recent ARM port.
I think you can get away with just using uIP and IPv4 for quite a while yet, though, especially if everything is running off a single external IP address.
PS: To answer your question, there is no HW changes required though .... your HW that uses IPv4 today can also use IPv6 tommorow as long as you have a proper stack.
