Free Pool of IPv4 Address Space Depleted

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has today allocated the remaining IPv4 blocks in the IANA pool equally between the five RIRs.

In a historic event today, the IANA has allocated the last five /8 IPv4 address blocks equally between the five RIRs. This means there are no longer any free IPv4 addresses available for allocation from IANA, thereby fully depleting the free pool of IPv4 address space. There is still available address space in the RIR IPv4 pools for further allocation to Internet operators, but it is now just a matter of time before that space is also depleted.

The final five /8s were distributed as follows:

102/8 AfriNIC
103/8 APNIC
104/8 ARIN
179/8 LACNIC
185/8 RIPE NCC

With the IPv4 address pool depleted, the widespread uptake of IPv6 among Internet operators is now imperative. The "next generation" Internet Protocol, IPv6 provides a hugely larger address space which will allow the Internet to continue growing or a long time to come. But many operators have been slow to deploy IPv6, despite many outreach and communication efforts about IPv4 depletion.

Netnod is proud to have been one of the strong advocates of IPv6 for many years and all Netnod operations are fully IPv6 enabled. At the upcoming Netnod meeting in March, there will be a full day dedicated to IPv6 where various operators share their experience with IPv6.