The Impending Internet Address Shortage

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

Sometime in the next six years, the Internet will run out of space. Expediting the migration to IPv6 is the solution to the impending crisis, says ARIN.

The coming shortage of Internet Protocol addresses prompted the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) on Monday to call for a faster migration to the new Internet Protocol, IPv6.

The current version, IPv4, allows for more than 4 billion (2^32) Internet addresses. Only 19% of the IPv4 address space remains. Somewhere around 2012-13, the last Internet address bloc will be assigned and the Internet will be full, in a manner of speaking.

"We must prepare for IPv4's depletion, and ARIN's resolution to encourage that migration to IPv6 may be the impetus for more organizations to start the planning process," said John Curran, chairman of ARIN's Board of Trustees, in a statement.

IPv6 promises some 16 billion-billion possible addresses (2^128).

Read entire story here.

[Mr. T]

I cannot pretend to understand why they are advocating moving to 2^128 instead of 2^64.

How many people are they supposing will fit on the planet?

[Boomer The Dog]

Well, they probably see something that we don't, like they used to talk about 'smart appliances' having their own IP addresses. Your car might have an IP address in the future, who knows.

One thing in the main article is the use of NAT to put several computers behind one IP address. I use a NAT router and have several computers on my one net connection, plus friends who visit with their laptops, and it's a great system. If it was scaled up with a gigabit switch and net connection, you could run a whole apartment complex off of one IP.

For business reasons also, ARIN might be making this announcement now to cast doubt in the minds who might want to buy and sell their addresses for big bucks. If big money gets involved, ARIN could be at risk of losing the regulatory control over the IPs that they now have.

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

Don't forget every cell phone will soon have an IP.

[hawkburn]

Yep, every home computer network, every cellphone, car, maybe "you" will have an IP address. Who knows. But what's for sure is that soon some countries will be becoming more and more online.

[mascott]

The crisis being faced is for the organizations selling internet addresses and blocks. However, they will probably just add another digit or two, along with the accompanying sequences of numbers. Problem solved!

[Lord_of_the_Dense]

You can't add another digit or two to IPv4. I don't know how to explain it, but it's not practical. 2 digits, separated by an ellipse, will only yield 2^34 addresses (I think). IPv6 addresses are normally written as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits. Hence the 16 billion-billion possible addresses.

[mascott]

I appreciate the correction, so someone else doesn't get the wrong idea.

[SOCALchillin]

Hmmmm...................