I have a couple of charts on IPv4 address depletion that I’ve used in presentations and customer reports for years. With today’s allocation of the last five IANA /8 blocks to the five RIRs, I’ve updated the charts for the last time, to show the “Available” pool at 0 and the 256 /8s fully distributed.
This last update was just for closure; I’ve removed the charts from my IPv6 presentations and archived them. I doubt they will show up in any of my future IPv6 presentations.
I assume most other long-time IPv6 advocates are similarly putting their IPv4 depletion materials into mothballs. The significance is that we are well past the “IPv6 marketing” phase – trying to convince people that IPv4 depletion is a reality, that it is going to happen Real Soon Now, and that there are no reasonable alternatives to IPv6 – and into the “Okay, what do we do now?” phase. Another way to say it is that we are no longer talking about “If IPv6 is going to become a reality” and “When is IPv6 going to become a reality.” Discussions now are “IPv6 is a reality. So how do we implement it?”
Do you have an IPv6 plan? If not, do you have a clear reason for not having a plan? Folks are going to be asking.
- About Jeff Doyle on IP Routing
Jeff Doyle is president of Jeff Doyle and Associates, an IP network consultancy. Jeff is the author of Routing TCP/IP, Volumes I (read an excerpt) and II and of OSPF and IS-IS: Choosing an IGP for Large-Scale Networks. He is a frequent speaker on IPv6, MPLS, and large-scale routing.
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