IPv4 Doomsday: The Gods Themselves

Posted on September 25, 2008
Filed Under China Internet |

China Tech News reports:

News reports emanating from the 2008 IP Address Resource Seminar held by the China Internet Network Information Center stated that because the current IPv4 addresses were limited and 80% of the final allocation IP addresses had been used, new Chinese netizens may not be able to gain normal access to the Internet by 2010.

However, a representative in charge of Chongqing’s radio and TV broadband services told local media that while it is true that IPv4 address availability is diminishing, it will not lead to an impossibility of gaining Internet access for China’s new netizens. Internet resources are not like natural resources which are non-renewable — they are man’s creation and man has the power to create more IP addresses. Man has dominion over the lowly IP address, and the shortage can be resolved with current technologies.

Er, man can also create network address translation (NAT). That’s the interim solution for this until some plan for IPv6 transition can be cobbled together. IP addresses aren’t non-renewable, but they are finite and China is clearly running out. You can’t make up IP addresses and assign them, it violates the address allocation scheme that is fundamental to the internet.

Still, I’ll walk taller today knowing I’m superior to the lowly IP address. Unless mighty Zeus hurls a thunderbolt at me for hubris.

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