Surprise devastation due to the IPv4 apocalypse as ARIN runs out of IPv4 addresses
OK, I’m being sarcastic. It is far from a surprise and not an apocalypse, BUT this is an important milestone on the road to the end of IPv4. So what was announced? ARIN (American Registry for Internet Numbers) stated they are finally out of IPv4 addresses and their pool is at zero (aka kaput, gone, sayonara). So if an organization needs addresses for the first time, or existing organizations need additional addresses in order to connect to the Internet, ARIN can no longer issue you an address.
On the face of it, this can have huge implications for service providers, Web 2.0, and large enterprises. As the explosion of devices and the “Internet of Things” requires more and more connections, this move is not going to slow down. So why isn’t this a surprise? It was predicted in the 1980s that the IPv4 address space would run out, despite its 4.3 billion IPv4 addresses. From the 1990s came IPv6 with 340 undecillion addresses; however, not being backward compatible became an adoption-limiting issue. The well-publicized World IPv6 Days a few years ago also brought widespread attention to the issue.
So we have a problem, and we have a solution in IPv6 – although it is not the only option that ensures this is not an “apocalypse” to organizations. Realistically, organizations have the following choices:
- Migrate to IPv6
- Dual-stack
- Native IPv6 (all-in)
- Hybrid, utilizing a combination of methods and IPv6 migration technologies such as NAT64/DNS64, DS-Lite, etc.
- Use Carrier-Grade NAT (CGNAT) to extend the life of existing IPv4 addresses
- Join ARIN’s waitlist for unmet requests
- Do nothing and have an expensive fire drill 🙂
The continued milestones of IPv4 depletion call for organizations to take action and luckily, options exist.
For your reading pleasure, here are some additional links on the depletion and solutions:
- ARIN Finally Runs Out of IPv4 Addresses
- Official: North America COMPLETELY OUT of new IPv4 addresses
- A Jaded Journalist Views IPv4 News
- Deutsche Telekom TeraStream Virtualizes IPv4 Services with vThunder CGN
Seeing is believing.
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