Communications of the ACM
Iphone App Predicts Ipv4 Doomsday
Several companies and researchers have offered predictions for when the supply of IPv4 addresses will be exhausted. Hurricane Electric, for example, recently introduced an iPhone application that lists the number of domains using IPv6, the number of remaining IPv4 addresses, and the number of days until the IPv4 addresses are gone. As of July 22, the application indicated that there were 699 days until the supply of IPv4 addresses is depleted, which means that the IPv4 address space will be exhausted sometime in mid 2011.
Meanwhile, the Asia-Pacific Network Information Center's Geoff Huston has predicted that there are 701 days left until all of the IPv4 addresses are gone. Both predictions are just educated guesses. Hurricane Electric's prediction, for example, is based on a calculated rate of depletion of IPv4 addresses, and the company's Martin Levy acknowledges it's an inexact science. "There's no Y2K day. There's no flag day," Levy says. "It isn't like on the first day of January 2010, we all have to swap."
Still, experts say organizations should not ignore the predictions because the day when the supply of IPv4 addresses is exhausted is coming quickly, even if no one knows exactly when it will happen. Among those calling for organizations to take action is Matt Ford, the Internet Society's technology program director. Ford notes that organizations that hope to successfully transition to IPv6 need to start the process now.
From IDG News Service
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