ARIN Reaches Final Stage for IPv4 Address Space

ARIN today announced that it is now down to its last /8 of IPv4 address space. This is the point when remaining IPv4 capacity is considered "depleted" and more stringent allocation policies are put into effect, as outlined in the announcement. The analogous depletion state was announced and similar policies enforced by APNIC in 2011 and by RIPE in 2012. LACNIC crossed the /8 threshold in 2011 but will engage its depletion policies when it reaches one /11 (2.1M IP addresses).

The last /8 threshold means the RIR has about 16.8 million IPv4 addresses available, which may seem like a lot, but each allocation consists of hundreds if not thousands of IP addresses to ISPs and customers. Hence the more stringent allocation policies to extend the lifetime of IPv4 a bit longer. You can follow the current outlook on IPv4 lifetime by RIR on Geoff Huston's potaroo site and summarized below and updated with this recent ARIN information:

RIRProjected Exhaustion DateRemaining /8sIP addresses
APNIC19-Apr-2011 (actual)0.793713.3M
RIPE NCC14-Sep-2012 (actual)0.819313.7M
LACNIC15-Jul-20140.40596.8M
ARIN23-Apr-20141.016.8M
AFRINIC28-Jan-20203.131352.5M

The net impact is that the Internet has just over 100 million IPv4 addresses available. That's 0.1 billion, which with only about 40% Internet user penetration today, doesn't leave much capacity at all for those 4 billion plus earthlings who do not yet have Internet access. If you haven't been convinced of the inevitability of IPv6, hopefully this helps and provides ample time to plan for it. If you haven't had time or resources to plan for IPv6, now is the time to start planning. BT can help with network assessment, planning and deployment services, free IPv6 addressing tools, and commercial IP address management (IPAM) solutions. Contact us to learn more.

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