Friday, 10th February 2012

Time To Migrate To IPv6

The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) has taken a resolution that they will take measures to save IPv4 addresses and encourage use of IPv6 addresses or migration to IPv6 addresses. It should be worth noting that as the IPv4 space decreases people will keep trying to obtain few of them by hook or by crook (cases of providing false info to obtain IPv4 addresses have been regularly seen over the Internet). So the above step of ARIN could be helpful in such sensitive circumstances.

ARIN is the organization responsible for giving out IP addresses in North America. Four similar organizations serve Latin America and the Caribbean (LACNIC), Africa (AfriNIC), Asia and the Pacific (APNIC), and Europe along with the rest of the world (RIPE NCC). ARIN’s Board of Trustees consists mainly of people elected from ARIN’s membership, which consists of any organization (or person) that cares about what ARIN does and can spare $500 a year. As such, it’s not unexpected for the board to attempt to further the common good by promoting IPv6.

Most people and organizations connected to the Internet, be they consumers, ISPs, or content companies, are much more interested in what’s in their best interests. By and large, they’re happy to stick with IPv4. Despite the best efforts of organizations like ARIN, the simple fact is that, compared to IPv4, IPv6 gives you access to very little content and very few users. So far, nobody has been able to get past this chicken-and-egg issue, although a The Great IPv6 Experiment proposes to change this by giving away free access to “10 gigabytes of the most popular ‘adult entertainment,’” but only over IPv6.

Following chart explain well how distribution of addresses progresses at ARIN.

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