IPv4 address blocks down to five

Tuesday, February 01, 2011

The end is drawing ever-closer for internet protocol version 4, as the Internet Assigned Number Authority recently doled out two large blocks of addresses to the Asia-Pacific Network Information. With that action, only five available IPv4 address blocks remain.

As a result, the IANA has activated a rule that obliges the agency to give out the remaining address blocks to the world's five regional internet registries.

The last five blocks could be distributed in a less than a week, leaving RIRs with nowhere to turn for more.

Once IPv4 addresses are depleted, the IANA will begin distributing a new internet protocol version, IPv6. While IPv4 can support only about 4.3 billion unique internet addresses, IPv6 has the capacity to support nearly an unlimited number of addresses.

The number of remaining IPv4 addresses has been decreasing steadily during the past few years. According to a recent Network World report, the IANA and the Number Resource Organization have scheduled a press event on February 3, during which they will make a significant announcement about internet protocol.