Web firms in some regions could face IPv4 address exhaustion within weeks, the Number Resource Organization (NRO) warned yesterday.
The NRO, which coordinates distribution of web addresses to five regional internet registries (RIRs), confirmed the last batch of free IPv4 addresses have now been issued, estimating their stocks could last a few months at best.
“All Internet stakeholders must now take definitive action to deploy IPv6,” chairman Raúl Echeberría said.
“It’s only a matter of time before the RIRs and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) must start denying requests for IPv4 address space.”
Each registry received its final allocation of IPv4 blocks – equivalent to 1/256th of all stocks – this week after Asia Pacific registry APNIC requested two blocks of addresses on Monday, triggering a policy to issue the final blocks to all five regional operations.
The announcement was widely anticipated following reports on APNIC’s request.