Alternatives to solving IPv4 address exhaustion other than IPv6
If IPv4 addresses will exhaust in the next year and a half, what are the ways people are addressing this issue? Other than migrate to IPv6, is there any other way to solve this problem?
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ASKED:
May 13, 2010 11:19 PM
UPDATED:
February 10, 2011 3:33 PM
Answer Wiki:
-- Mshen
We already implemented NAT to reduce the IPv4 concern, but there is no way around running out of IPv4 addresses. We will have to migrate to IPv6 eventually.
-- Mattmather
2 approaches to IPv4 exhaustion were taken some years ago now. Firstly, as Mshen rightly mentions, NAT and secondly the widespread use and allocation of addresses using variable subnet length masks. The 2 approaches essentially bought us more time but ultimately IPv6 will have to replace IPv4 at some point very soon.
To assist in the migration to IPv6 several techniques have been put in place. One such technique is 6 to 4 tunnelling but I guess that answers a different question.
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Hi
This problem is well known since more than a decade. The short term fix for this, while IPv6 wasn’t ready yet in the second half of the nineties was NAT and variable lengths subnet masks. But now, as IPv6 is inevitable and is the natural evolutionary step for the continuation of the Internet it makes no sense to use any more quick fixes, or to even build new NATs.
IPv6 was developed as the long term solution for the address shortage and does not only solve the address problem, but is also better suited to meet the requirements of the future Internet.
Cheers
Silvia
The only problem with the current IPv6 “standard” is the sheer amount of waste built directly into the protocol.
With a /64 being the smallest prefix we can use, anyone that is assigned one for their “subnet” will ultimately end up NOT USING a good 90% of the millions of addresses in their /64 range…