[IPv6crawler-wg] Fwd: ICANN News Alert -- To 4,294,967,296 and Beyond – Under 10% of IPv4 Space Remains: Adoption of IPv6 Is Essential

[Olivier MJ Crepin-Leblond]

Hey everyone,

I've made a lot of noise at ICANN around 6 months ago. It's not paying off.
Warm regards,

Olivier

-------- Message original --------
Sujet: 	ICANN News Alert -- To 4,294,967,296 and Beyond – Under 10% of 
IPv4 Space Remains: Adoption of IPv6 Is Essential
Date : 	Mon, 1 Feb 2010 12:58:29 -0500
De : 	ICANN News Alert <communications at icann.org>
Pour : 	ocl at gih.com



ICANN <http://www.icann.org/>


    News Alert

http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/announcement-29jan10-en.htm

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    To 4,294,967,296 and Beyond – Under 10% of IPv4 Space Remains:
    Adoption of IPv6 Is Essential

29 January 2010

* * *History of IPv4*

It has long been anticipated, but the available pool of unallocated 
Internet addresses using the older IPv4 protocol – which holds a total 
of slightly more than four billion IP addresses - has now dipped to 
below the 10 percent mark, meaning that there are only a bit over 400 
million IP addresses left in the global pool of unallocated addresses.

The IPv4 protocol defines the unique numeric address number assigned to 
each computer that is connected to the Internet. The Internet was 
developed in the early 1980s <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc791> and has 
served us well for about three decades. With a bit over 400 million 
addresses remaining, the IPv4 address space is expected to be fully 
allocated in about two years’ time, although predicting an exact date is 
not practical as this will depend upon human behaviour.

“It is important that the public understand that many of the IPv4 
addresses that have been allocated have not yet been distributed to the 
public, so there will be no immediate global shortage of IPv4 addresses 
at the consumer level,” said Rod Beckstrom, ICANN’s CEO and President.

*IPv4 Distribution System*

IPv4 addresses are distributed in a hierarchical system. As the IANA 
functions operator, ICANN allocates IPv4 blocks to the five Regional 
Internet Registries (RIRs) around the world, and the RIRs then allocate 
smaller blocks to ISPs and other network operators. It is the ISPs and 
other Internet operators who assign the addresses to the individual 
Internet connections used by most computer users.

Recent growth in Internet deployment in the Asia Pacific region, 
particularly in China, has resulted in strong growth in allocations by 
that region’s RIR, APNIC (Asia Pacific Network Information Centre).

*Consensus Policies Developed in Regional Forums*

ICANN’s process for allocating IPv4 blocks to RIRs is in accordance with 
the global policy that was developed through the RIRs’ regional public 
policy forums. This process is very similar to those used for developing 
other ICANN policies, like the GNSO and ccNSO. The RIRs allocate 
addresses to ISPs and other network operators according to the policies 
that have been developed in these forums and which include participants 
from industry, governments and civil society. These forums are open to 
participation by anyone with access to e-mail.


Bottom-up Policy Making Process – Policy Developed by Users in a 
Multi-stakeholder Environment

*Deploy IPv6 Now*

“This is the time for the Internet community to act,” said Rod 
Beckstrom, ICANN’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “For the 
global Internet to grow and prosper without limitation, we need to 
encourage the rapid and widespread adoption of the IPv6 protocol.”

IPv6 is the new system the Internet engineering community has developed 
to cope with the increased demand for IP addresses.

Technical experts agree that the single biggest advantage of IPv6 is its 
capacity to accommodate Internet growth. For example, if all IPv4 
address could fit within a BlackBerry, it would take a storage device 
the physical size of the Earth to contain all available IPv6 addresses.

*Why IPv6 Is Essential for Internet Growth?*

Developed in the 1990s <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2460>, IPv6 has 
been available for allocation to ISPs since 1999. An increasing number 
of ISPs have been deploying IPv6 over the past decade, as have 
governments and businesses. The biggest attraction of IPv6 is the 
enormous address space it provides. Instead of just 4 billion IPv4 
addresses – fewer than the number of people on the planet – there are 
340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 IPv6 addresses. An 
easier way to think of this number is 340 trillion trillion trillion 
addresses. This vastness was purposely designed so that all of the 
conceivable networks now and in the future would have enough addresses 
for the multitude of devices that can now be connected to them, such as 
mobile phones, general-purpose computers, cameras and e-book readers. 
But all sorts of devices that aren’t intended to be used by people will 
also soon have IP addresses. Examples include utility meters and h 
ousehold appliances that communicate with providers to find out the 
cheapest time to buy power.

Similarly, IPv6 can allow people to use off-the-shelf equipment to 
securely connect to a myriad of home automation technologies and other 
systems remotely. There is no need for special gateways and proxies when 
every system can be securely accessed over IPSEC and operated directly.

As such, adopting IPv6 addresses clearly offers a number of advantages:

    * There will be plenty of IP addresses for everyone.
    * Anything connected to a network will be able to have a unique address.
    * The new larger address space can open the door to a whole new
      generation of online devices and services.

“Quite simply, it comes down to the simple fact that IPv6 is the future 
of the Internet,” said Beckstrom. “The Internet now defines 
communication and commerce and to accommodate its explosive worldwide 
growth we need to act now to guarantee an online future that 
accommodates growth with few limitations.”

To learn more about IPv6, go to:
http://www.icann.org/en/announcements/factsheet-ipv6-26oct07.pdf [PDF, 402K]

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