If tomorrow night is the last night of IPv4

Bkjia.com April 27 Internet headlines: How do we know when IPv4 address space will be used up? What will happen when that day arrives? Who can answer these two questions?

The Internet we are using is built on IPv4. According to the definition of IPv4, it can provide 4.3 billion address space, even if there are so many addresses, after decades of allocation, the available IPv4 addresses are almost exhausted. It is reported from time to time that there will be no available IPv4 addresses in the past one or two years. Organizations that allocate IP addresses, such as the American Registry for Internet Numbers, ARIN, an Internet address registration authority, are trying to predict when IPv4 address space is used up, but cannot specify exactly which day it is.

At the arin xxv strategy meeting held last week, arin cio Richard Jimmerson explained how ARIN predicts when IPv4 addresses will run out.

Jimmerson said: "We are about to use up IPv4 address space, but the trouble is that we cannot specify the specific date of the day. Based on the application requirements and the amount of address space that can be allocated, this date may be moved. According to the current situation, it may take a day from the middle of next year to the end of next year. At that time, ARIN receives a reasonable IPv4 address space application request, but we have to say no for the first time ".

He said that if the other party knows that there is no IPv4 address to be redistributed, it will be very shocking. This is also the main reason why ARIN has been promoting IPv6. According to the definition of IPv6, it can provide 3.4 million Internet addresses and claim to be able to allocate an IP address to everything in the world, so that no IP address will be exhausted in the future. BKJIA edit Note: to learn about IPv6, click IPv6 protocol to expand the unlimited network space.

It is worth noting that the day when ARIN rejects an IPv4 address application for the first time is not necessarily the day when the IPv4 address is exhausted.

Jimmerson said: "for different organizations of different sizes, this day may be different. For example, some large international organizations usually apply for more addresses, this kind of organization is very likely to be the first target to reject the application. At that time, we have to tell him that we don't have so many addresses for you. You have to change the number of applications to a smaller value, in this case, it indicates that the day when the IPv4 address is allocated is approaching ".

For organizations with thousands of IPv4 addresses for other applications, this day may be a little late, but one day ARIN won't even meet the minimum request, Jimmerson said.

Currently, the minimum address size allocated by ARIN is/22, that is, 1024 IPv4 addresses. According to Jimmerson, ARIN will narrow down the minimum allocated address block to/24, that is, 256 IPv4 addresses.

After ARIN allocates the last IPv4 address space, some IPv4 addresses are retained. Jimmerson said: "according to the strategic plan, we will retain some special IPv4 addresses." As early as many years ago, people realized that IPv4 addresses would be used up on that day, I also realized that IPv6 has lost many IPv4 network advantages, so I decided to reserve some IPv4 address space as a backup, mainly used for DNS and protocol conversion services.

Jimmerson said: "We decided to keep the/10 IP address in/8. The/8 IP address block contains 16,777,214 IP addresses, and the/10 IP address segment contains 4 million IP addresses. Therefore, when we allocate an IPv4 address, we still have/10 address segments in our hands, which can fully meet the DNS and Protocol transfer service address requirements ".

ARIN is responsible for IP address space allocation in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. It is one of the five Regional Internet Registration Regional Internet Registry, RIR) organizations, they all obtain IP addresses from Internet address encoding agencies Internet Assigned Numbers Authority, IANA), and the other four RIR are European ripe ncc, Asia Pacific APNIC, LACNIC in Latin America and AfriNIC in Africa.

Jimmerson said: "When IANA has only five/eight address segments left, the allocation policy is one/eight address segments per RIR. Currently, IANA has only 20/8 address segments, but as IPv4 address space approaches depletion, ARIN has gradually reduced its applications in recent years. In the North American market, the IPv4 address space is saturated, but the demand for IPv4 addresses is rising in other regions of the world, especially in Asia Pacific and Latin America ".

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Original article:IPv4's Last Day: What Will Happen When There Is Only IPv6?Author:Sean Michael Kerner