How RIRs offer to solve the problem with the lack of IPv4 addresses

The management of IP space and distribution is carried out by the IANA Internet address space administration and regional Internet registrars (ARIN, APNIC, AfriNIC, LACNIC, RIPE NCC). In early 2011, IANA allocated the last five of the remaining blocks of address space to regional operators.

Then the experts of the organization predicted that the addresses will be exhausted within the next five years. And these five years have come to an end and LACNIC, ARIN, has announced the suspension of the issuance of addresses. AfriNIC and RIPE NCC still allocating IP space, but based on the rules of IP exhaustion.

What to do?

As one of the possible solutions now it is proposed to strengthen control over addresses. Initially, the ranges were issued in huge blocks, but many organizations that received IPs at their disposal, today ceased to exist, and the registry at that time was not conducted. Therefore, it is necessary to return all the addresses, split them into smaller clusters and redistribute them.

Another solution is the introduction of the IPv6 system, which is the latest version of IP. However, here there is a certain complexity, because the IPv6 protocol is incompatible with IPv4, which slows down and complicates the transition.

There is a third option. Address Network Address Translation (NAT), which converts multiple local addresses of an organization into a single external address. There are several types of NAT. The first is static, which converts internal addresses to external "on a scale" one to one. The second is dynamic, transiting one internal address to the outside of the provided range. The transit is carried out in the same way as in static NAT, only the external address is selected randomly from those that were free at the time of the transit.

Switching to IPv6

Many operators are beginning to gradually move to IPv6, because sooner or later everyone will have to use it. To mitigate the transition from IPv4 to IPv6, Carrier-Grade NAT technology is available. DS-Lite technology uses an IPv6 connection between the provider and the client. The IPv4 packet from the client, bound to the external network, is encapsulated in IPv6 for transit by the provider network, and then converted back to IPv4 when going to the public Internet. In this case, the operator can deploy an IPv6 network, but continue to provide connection services for clients over IPv4.