IPv4 Address Depletion countdown, RIPs on Feb 1st

IPv4 addresses, as we know it today, nears it end.

With everything from smartphones to Internet-linked appliances and cars getting online, the group entrusted with organizing the Web is running out of the “IP” numbers that identify destinations for digital traffic. IPv4 could accomodate only billions of addresses, but IPv6 would do multi Trillions, enough for assigning IP addresses to each grain in Sahara desert.

As of January 23, IPv4 address depletion would happen in 9 days, i.e. February 1st 2011. 40 million IPv4 addresses will deplete in these 9 days.

The pool in the sky is a fast-draining reservoir of IP addresses maintained by the non-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).ICANN has been calling for a change to IPv6 for years but websites and Internet service providers have been clinging to the old standard since the birth of the Internet.”One of the reasons it has taken so long to change is that there is no obvious advantage or killer application for IPv6.

The number of addresses that IPv6 allows for amounts to 340 “undecillion” (followed by 36 zeroes); enough for a trillion people to each be assigned trillions of IP numbers, according to ICANN.

A full shift to IPv6 will take years, with the remaining stock of old IP addresses being allocated to support the transition.

All major websites have their IPv6 alternates, Google first started this, and hopes to make it primary mode of communication, over the coming years.

Here’s a Video Song dedicated to Depletion of IPv4, old song but explains the current scenario in detail:

IPv4 Address Depletion countdown

• IPv6 Challenges Ahead – Security, Migration. Still Not a Next-Generation.
• IPv4 Usage Report

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