Media release: 2011 is the year of IPv4 exhaustion

Media release – 2 February 2011

The New Zealand IPv6 Task Force advises that 2011 is the year when allocations of IPv4 addresses from the world’s Internet address registries will be exhausted.

“For those organisations that are yet to adopt the replacement IPv6 protocol on their networks, now is the time to move,” says Task Force Convenor Dr Murray Milner.

IPv6 is the Internet addressing protocol which overcomes the limitations of the existing IPv4 address space, by providing an almost unlimited number of unique addresses.

The global Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) administers the IANA function, fundamentally co-ordinating the central databases for the Internet. IANA has already announced it has made its final allocations of IPv4 addresses to the world’s five Regional Internet Registries, and these Regional Registries will see their pools of IPv4 space allocated over the next few months.

APNIC, the Regional Internet Registry which allocates address space for the Asia Pacific region, including to New Zealand, is expected to exhaust its IPv4 address allocation around the middle of this year.

Milner says while Internet operation in New Zealand may be unaffected in the short term, the IPv4 run-out should catalyse some serious thinking about IPv6 adoption right across industry.

“It will not be long until we see pockets of Internet emerging around the world that are IPv6 only, and if New Zealand organisations or individuals are not using IPv6, they will not be able to reach users who have only IPv6 addresses. It is critical that the end to end principles of the Internet be maintained in order to provide universal point to point connectivity,” he says.

Certain organisations and sectors are leading the way. “Those that have already deployed in at least a part of their systems include REANNZ, FX Networks, WorldxChange, Fujitsu, Massey University and Auckland University, and we are highlighting these leaders and more on our website at www.ipv6.org.nz,” says Milner.

“There have also been positive signs from the New Zealand Government. The Department of Internal Affairs has announced the .govt.nz namespace is IPv6 ready and has established www.ipv6.govt.nz as a pilot website for the Government, who are to be congratulated in showing leadership with this important milestone.”

The New Zealand IPv6 Task Force also announces its support of World IPv6 Day, set for 8 June 2011. There will be a number of events held on this day around the world, with major web companies coming together to enable IPv6 on their main websites for 24 hours.

For more information contact:

Murray Milner
Convenor
NZ IPv6 Task Force
0274 430 120

Dean Pemberton
Technical Lead
NZ IPv6 Task Force
021 920 363

One Comment

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  1. IPv6 Ready 13. Feb, 2011 at 4:43 pm #

    Great to see IPv6 is taking off worldwide. However, Lots of IPv4 networks still setting up to be IPv6 ready the new routers have a logo that says IPv6 ready too! Great read thanks

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