IANA exhausts its supply of IPv4 addresses

With IPv4 addresses now 'out of stock', organisations must turn to IPv6 for future address ranges

Today the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), the body responsible for the global coordination of IP addressing, handed out its remaining pool of IPv4 addresses.

Organisations without spare IPv4 addresses in reserve will need to assign addresses from the newer IPv6 range to devices in order for them to connect to the internet.

The IPv6 range has been designed to succeed IPv4, and is capable of supporting a dramatically larger pool of addresses.

Earlier this week, IANA allocated two blocks of IPv4 address space to the Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the Asia Pacific region. This triggered a policy to allocate the remaining IANA pool equally between the five RIRs.

This policy was ratified in 2009 by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the international body responsible for IANA's function. It ensures that when IANA's pool of IPv4 addresses reached five remaining blocks, these were to be simultaneously and equally distributed to the five RIRs.

Leslie Daigle, CTO of the Internet Society, a body dedicated to providing leadership in internet-related standards, education and policy, said: "We hope [IPv4 address exhaustion] sparks other organisations to plan for and deploy IPv6 as part of a strategy to ensure they are connected to a growing future internet that is as dynamic and vibrant as today's."

As part of its work to encourage the timely deployment of IPv6, the Internet Society is coordinating World IPv6 Day on 8 June 2011. Google, Facebook and Yahoo will be among the major organisations that will offer their content over IPv6 for a 24-hour "test drive".

However, there are some work-arounds for organisations not yet ready for IPv6.

Anthony Christie, CTO of IP solutions provider Global Crossing, said: "Network Address Translation and other technologies still present viable options for enterprises and government agencies that have been reluctant to migrate to an IPv6-capable network, but people will need to assess their roadmap and plan for the eventual migration to IPv6 in the not too distant future."

Meanwhile, some organisations are known to own large blocks of unused IPv4 addresses, and some commentators have described the existence of a black market of IPv4 addresses.