RIPE's IPv4 allocations to run out next month
Crunch time finally approaches for IPv4
RIPE, the European regional internet registry, has warned that its allocation of IPv4 IP addresses will run out in November.
However, while there is an almost limitless availability of the newer IPv6 addresses, huge swathes of the internet still aren't ready for it yet, despite the draft being published in 1999 and the standard being formally ratified in July 2017.
The RIPE Network Coordinating Centre (NCC) spoke to more than 4,000 network operators with one-third of them ranking the shortage of IPv4 addresses as one of their top-three challenges.
The findings also indicate that more than half of those questioned will need a new stock of addresses in the next two to three years.
RIPE NCC explains: "On October 2, we announced that we had one million IPv4 addresses left in our available pool, which we expect to run out in November 2019. Any IPv4 addresses we recover after this point will be allocated to new entrants via a waiting list. This will probably be a few hundred thousand addresses - not much compared to the many millions that networks in our region need. "
IPv6 was supposed to have been commonplace long before we reached this point. After all, as RIPE NCC points out: " It's important to note that we have been in a state of IPv4 exhaustion since 2012, when we reached our final allocation from IANA. "
It continued: "IPv4 'run-out' has long been anticipated and planned for by the technical community and no one needs to worry about the Internet suddenly breaking.
"But it does mean that the pressure will continue to build for many networks, necessitating the use of complex and expensive workarounds. Our advice to network operators is to take stock of their IP resources and to make sure their IPv6 plans are making progress".
However, despite the warning from RIPE, operators still have millions of unused addresses between them - but ISPs may need to speed-up their roll-out of IPv6 support if they're not to find themselves high-and-dry when they need more IP addresses.