{"id":3262,"date":"2015-07-01T20:56:51","date_gmt":"2015-07-01T20:56:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/live-infoblox-blog.pantheonsite.io\/?p=3262"},"modified":"2020-05-06T10:30:11","modified_gmt":"2020-05-06T17:30:11","slug":"north-americas-ipv4-address-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.infoblox.com\/blog\/ipv6-coe\/north-americas-ipv4-address-shortage\/","title":{"rendered":"North America’s IPv4 Address Shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Like the monotonous droning sound of jungle drums so has the repetitive and continual predictions about the exhaustion of world\u2019s supply of public IPv4 address.\u00a0 We have been hearing about the impending scarcity of IPv4 addresses for so long that we don\u2019t hear the calls to action.\u00a0 Today\u2019s announcement by The\u00a0American Registry for Internet Numbers<\/a>\u00a0(ARIN) that they have reached IPv4 exhaustion and has now signaled the alarm.\u00a0 Organizations can no longer ignore what the future of the IPv4 Internet may be like, and instead, seize ownership of their own destiny and deploy IPv6.<\/p>\n

IPv4 Addresses<\/h2>\n

When the\u00a0Internet Protocol<\/a>\u00a0(IP) was being developed in the 1970s the number of endpoints was quite small.\u00a0 The working being done at\u00a0Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency<\/a>\u00a0(DARPA) was done with a small set of university research and government systems.\u00a0 The 32-bit addresses used with\u00a0IPv4<\/a>\u00a0are hierarchically allocated (like phone numbers) and used quad dotted decimal notation for human readability.\u00a0 At the time the Internet Protocol was developed, no one could have possibly predicted the impending popularity of the Internet.<\/p>\n

Addressing and routing go hand-in-hand<\/a>\u00a0and the inefficiency of allocation of IPv4 addresses eventually led to a worldwide shortage of addresses.\u00a0 The IETF\u00a0Address Lifetime Expectations<\/a>\u00a0(ALE) Working Group anticipated back this trend back in the mid-1990s that\u00a0this date would come<\/a>.\u00a0 With the introduction of\u00a0Classless Interdomain Routing<\/a>\u00a0(CIDR) and\u00a0Network Address Translation<\/a>\u00a0(NAT) in the mid-1990s, IPv4 has been on extended life-support for almost two decades.\u00a0 For almost a decade the community has been watching\u00a0Geoff Huston\u2019s IPv4 Address Report<\/a>\u00a0as a guide to anticipate when IPv4 exhaustion would occur.<\/p>\n

IANA and the RIRs<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0Internet Assigned Number Authority<\/a>\u00a0(IANA) depleted their free pool of IPv4 address space on February 3, 2011.\u00a0 On that date, all the available\u00a0IPv4 addresses<\/a>\u00a0had been allocated to the five\u00a0Regional Internet Registries<\/a>\u00a0(RIRs) around the world.\u00a0 Each RIR has had to independently manage their own supply of IPv4 addresses resources.\u00a0 However, each RIR has had a different strategy for their\u00a0exhaustion stage\/phase schedule<\/a>.\u00a0 Each RIR has had a different policy for how they are effectively managing the allocation of their limited IPv4 resources.<\/p>\n

APNIC<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0Asia-Pacific Network Information Centre<\/a>\u00a0(APNIC) has had an extremely fast-growing Internet population and took a particularly aggressive stance on IPv4 address allocation and prioritizing\u00a0IPv6<\/a>\u00a0deployment.\u00a0 Their supply of IPv4\u00a0addresses ran out<\/a>\u00a0on April 15, 2011.\u00a0 APNIC has been giving guidance to their member organizations for years on\u00a0IPv4 address exhaustion<\/a>\u00a0and has a page on what is happening in the\u00a0post-exhaustion phase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

RIPE NCC<\/h2>\n

The next RIR to run out of IPv4 addresses was\u00a0R\u00e9seaux IP Europ\u00e9ens Network Coordination Centre<\/a>\u00a0(RIPE NCC).\u00a0 Their\u00a0supply of public IPv4 addresses<\/a>\u00a0passed their final \/8 equivalent on September 14, 2012.\u00a0\u00a0RIPE NCC\u2019s policies<\/a>\u00a0state that their members can make a one-time request for a \/22 allocation and no new Provider Independent (PI) allocations will be made.<\/p>\n

LACNIC<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0Latin America and Caribbean Network Information Centre<\/a>\u00a0(LACNIC) was the next RIR to exhaust their supply of IPv4 addresses.\u00a0 This\u00a0occurred on<\/a>\u00a0June 10, 2014 as a result of their growing Internet community.\u00a0 Their member organization continue to grow their Internet access and LACNIC has initiatives around helping their members embark on the\u00a0IPv6<\/a>\u00a0path.<\/p>\n

ARIN<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0American Registry for Internet Numbers<\/a>\u00a0(ARIN) is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the U.S., Canada, and Caribbean and North Atlantic islands.\u00a0 North America has had a large Internet-connected population, but as more systems and organizations have connected to the Internet,\u00a0ARIN<\/a>\u00a0has processed numerous requests for public IPv4 addresses.<\/p>\n

ARIN\u00a0entered Phase 4<\/a>\u00a0of their\u00a0IPv4 Exhaustion plan<\/a>\u00a0on April 23, 2014 and has been operating under their Phase 4 policies since then.\u00a0 During Phase 4, any new request for IPv4 address space is reviewed by the IPv4 Review Team queue where they are reviewed in a first-come first-served basis.\u00a0 ARIN has been managing the\u00a0IPv4 Request Pipeline<\/a>\u00a0as their IPv4 stockpile dwindles.\u00a0 The current IPv4 address inventory is listed on ARIN\u2019s\u00a0IPv4 depletion page<\/a>.\u00a0 ARIN has an\u00a0IPv4 Depletion blog<\/a>\u00a0where you can find the latest information on this topic.<\/p>\n

Now that IPv4 exhaustion has occurred for ARIN members, the rules for future IPv4 allocations will change.\u00a0 ARIN members can make address requests, but ARIN is likely to not have address supply to meet those requests.\u00a0 Applicants will either be given the choice to accept a smaller block than they requested or get their name\u00a0added to a waiting list<\/a>.\u00a0 Applicants can also withdraw their request and chose to acquire their IPv4 addresses from another source.\u00a0 This\u00a0ARIN web page<\/a>\u00a0provides information on the waiting list for unmet IPv4 address requests.\u00a0 These guidelines are published in the\u00a0Number Resource Policy Manual<\/a>\u00a0(NRPM)\u00a0Section 4.1.8<\/a>.<\/p>\n

AFRNIC<\/h2>\n

The\u00a0African Network Information Centre<\/a>\u00a0(AfriNIC) has a growing Internet population too, but they have not reached exhaustion of their IPv4 address supply.\u00a0 As more of their communities come online their usage of their remaining IPv4 addresses are likely to accelerate.<\/p>\n

Next Steps<\/h2>\n

Using\u00a0both IPv4 and IPv6 in parallel dual-protocol mode<\/a>\u00a0gives your organization the best position to be able to communicate with the broadest Internet community.\u00a0 Deploying IPv6 is a long-term strategy, but enterprise organizations must start that process immediately.\u00a0 However, even if organizations aggressively deploy IPv6, they will\u00a0still experience a short-term IPv4 address shortage<\/a>.\u00a0 Still, organizations may be forced to\u00a0purchase\/lease public IPv4 addresses<\/a>\u00a0and now those IPv4 addresses will only become more expensive.<\/p>\n

If you haven\u2019t embarked on the IPv6 path yet, there is no time like the present to\u00a0define your organization\u2019s IPv6 strategy<\/a>.\u00a0 Ed Horley, Practice Manager – Cloud Solutions and the Practice Lead – IPv6 at Groupware Technology, and\u00a0Infoblox IPv6 Center of Excellence<\/a>\u00a0member has a\u00a0great blog<\/a>\u00a0with some solid guidance for enterprises on how to get started with IPv6.\u00a0 Following are his first phases of an IPv6 plan.<\/p>\n