IPv4 addresses dwindling as allocations hit record high

[nsane.forums]

Number Resource Organisation sees record take-up of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses

The number of available IPv4 addresses continues to decrease after the Number Resource Organisation (NRO) announced that it had seen record numbers of allocations in the first quarter of 2010.

The NRO said that the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), one of the five Regional Internet Registries, allocated almost 27 million IPv4 address in the first quarter of this year, more than any other registry.

Paul Rendek, chairman of the communications group at the NRO, said that the industry body was pleased to see such a high take-up of IPv4 addresses in this region as it helped to spread the capacity of IPv4 allocations outside Europe and the US.

"China is predominately taking up IPv4 addresses as ISPs there need to be able to allocate addresses to huge numbers of new users, which is why we have seen such significant growth there in the last quarter," he said.

The record number of allocations by APNIC, and a continued surge in the second quarter of the year, means that the global pool of remaining IPv4 addresses has reached just 7.8 per cent.

By contrast, the allocation of IPv6 addresses remains minuscule. Just 186 IPv6 addresses were allocated by APNIC in the first quarter of the year, and allocations in RIPE, the Regional Internet Registry for EMEA, hit 168.

However, Rendek argued that these figures, despite being low, are a significant marker for the gathering momentum behind IPv6, and that ISPs will ultimately drive the take-up of the new protocol.

"At present ISPs don't have a business case to start allocating IPv6 addresses as very few content providers host their services on these addresses, and the cost of making the two address protocols compatible with one another is an unnecessary expense," he said.

"However, ISPs are able to phase in the technology to their networks that can facilitate this compatibility, and we are working closely with them to encourage them to do this before the IPv4 allocation is used up to help ease the networks into the transition."

Rendek added that the NRO is also working with governments and large enterprises to encourage them to take the lead on the deployment of IPv6 on their networks.

View: Original Article