[tforum] Impending Internet Addess shortage - how it will affect even the Universities and Colleges of Utah

[Joe Breen]

Last month, I sat in on a conference call with many of the national 
research networks and listened to a presentation by a representative of 
the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN).  Of particular note 
in the presentation was how the amount of IPv4 address requests had 
increased globally and how the amount of available IPv4 address space 
was shrinking.  The problem has now reached a critical point such that 
ARIN and the other international number registries are now considering 
policy proposals on when to stop handing out IPv4 space.  In conjunction 
with those proposals, the registries are starting to form working groups 
on how to deal with legacy IP space that pre-date the registries 
(pre-1997 allocations).  For example, many .edu groups have large IP 
allocations that pre-date the formal IP allocation policies.  Often, 
these groups have far more allocation than other comparable sized 
entities.  Policies and governments have already ruled that IP space is 
NOT an owned asset like domain names.  Therefore, the "legacy" working 
groups at the registries will be asking some hard questions about how to 
start reclaiming or otherwise managing legacy IP space.  New policies 
will start coming into place over the next 2-3 years as the working 
groups start to flesh out ideas.  For those who want to participate, 
subscribe to the public policy email lists at ARIN (www.arin.net).

Yesterday, May 21,2007, the ARIN board and other international 
registries made an official advisement to the Internet community to 
migrate to IPv6.  The advisement is at 
http://www.arin.net/announcements/20070521.html.  No longer is IPv6 a 
fun future protocol, but rather, a recommended means to deal with an 
imminent problem.  Security policies and allocation policies need to 
start incorporating and addressing IPv6.  For those who want to keep 
abreast of the changes in the Internet, please start investigating IP 
version 6.

For those with a curiosity of how this shortage might affect the 
business world and create short-term opportunities, check out:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199700668

	--Joe