The regional Internet registry RIPE NCC, which handles the distribution of IP addresses across Europe, Central Asia, and parts of Asia, has announced the distribution of the last available block of IPv4 addresses. In 2012, RIPE distributing the last /8 block of addresses (about 17 million addresses) and reduced the maximum subnet size to /22 (1024 addresses). Yesterday, the last /22 block was allocated, and there are no free IPv4 addresses left at RIPE.
From now on, IPv4 subnets will be allocated exclusively from the pool of returned address blocks, which is replenished by defunct organizations that owned IPv4 addresses, voluntary returns of unused blocks, or the withdrawal of subnets after the closure of LIR accounts. Addresses from the pool of returned blocks will be issued in a queue. Blocks not exceeding 256 (/24) addresses will be allocated. Applications for queuing are only accepted from LIRs that have not previously received IPv4 addresses (currently, there are 11 LIRs in the queue).
It is noted that the demand for IPv4 from operators is measured in millions of addresses. The active adoption of address translators () and the resale market for IPv4 addresses that has emerged in recent years are merely temporary compromises that do not resolve the global problem of IPv4 address scarcity. Without widespread adoption of IPv6, the growth of the global network may be limited not by technical issues or lack of investment but merely by a shortage of unique network identifiers.
According to , based on statistics from Google services, the share of IPv6 is approaching 30%, compared to 21% a year ago and 18% two years ago. The highest degree of IPv6 usage is observed in Belgium (49.8%), Germany (44%), Greece (43%), Malaysia (39%), India (38%), France (35%), and the USA (35%). In Russia, the number of IPv6 users is estimated at 4.26%, in Ukraine at 2.13%, in Belarus at 0.03%, and in Kazakhstan at 0.02%.
According to According to Cisco, the share of routable IPv6 prefixes is 33.54%. The number of IPv6 users in Cisco reports roughly corresponds to Google statistics, but additionally provides information on the level of IPv6 adoption in operators' infrastructure. In Belgium, the IPv6 adoption rate is 63%, in Germany it is 60%, in Greece 58%, in Malaysia 56%, in India 52%, in France 54%, and in the USA 50%. In Russia, the IPv6 adoption rate is 23%, in Ukraine it is 19%, in Belarus 22%, and in Kazakhstan it is 17%.
Among the network operators that actively implement IPv6,
T-Mobile USA — IPv6 adoption rate 95%, RELIANCE JIO INFOCOMM — 90%, Verizon Wireless — 85%, AT&T Wireless — 78%, Comcast — 71%.
The number of websites from the Alexa Top 1000 ranking accessible directly via IPv6 is 23.7%.
Source: opennet.ru
