BEIJING,April 8 (Xinhuanet) -- An online IP address consists of a unique string of numbers that identifies a computer's connection to the Internet.

On Thursday, hundreds of domestic and international Internet representatives gathered in Beijing for the 2011 Global IPv6 Summit. They discussed and jointly promoted the development of online businesses in the Internet Protocol version 6 era. Our reporter Li Wanmei logs on to find out more.

The IPv6 summit mainly focused on finding solutions to exhaustion faced by its predecessor, IPv4, as well as ensuring a smoother transition to IPv6. The latter provides a significantly larger amount of IP addresses than the previous generation. This expansion allows for many more devices and users on the Internet, in addition to extra flexibility in allocating addresses and improved efficiency in routing traffic.