industry insiders often say “the Internet is running out of phone numbers,” as a way to express that the Internet is running out of IPv4 addresses, to most people unfamiliar with Internet technologies. IPv4 addresses, like social security numbers and phone numbers are assigned hierarchically, and have inherent inefficiency. The Internet population continues to increase and the number of Internet connected devices is on the rise. The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) have exhausted their supply of IPv4 addresses. This predicted Internet event marks opening a new chapter of the Internet’s evolution.

 

ARIN IPv4 Address Exhaustion

The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) delegates authority for Internet resources to the five RIRs that cover the world. The American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and North Atlantic islands. ARIN has been managing the assignment of IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and Autonomous System (AS) numbers for several decades. Each RIR has been managing their limited IPv4 address stores and going through their various phases of exhaustion policies. ARIN has been in Phase 4 of their IPv4 depletion plan for more than a year now. ARIN will soon announce that they have completely extinguished their supply of IPv4 addresses.

The rules for how address resources are allocated have changed.