Blog: Probe Sees Unused Internet

Probe Sees Unused Internet
Technology Review (10/15/08) Lemos, Robert
Internet addresses may not be running out as quickly as many feared, concludes a new research study. The study found that millions of Internet addresses have been assigned but remain unused. In a paper to be presented at the ACM Internet Measurement Conference, which takes place October 20-22, in Vouliagmeni, Greece, six researchers have documented what they say is the first complete census of the Internet in more than two decades. The researchers discovered a surprising number of unused addresses and predict that plenty of addresses will still be unused when the last numbers are assigned in a few years. The researchers say the main problem is that some companies and institutions are using only a small portion of the millions of addresses they have been allocated. The paper's lead author, University of Southern California professor John Heidemann, says the study indicates that there might be better ways of managing the IPv4 address space. A new map of the Internet created by the study suggests that there is room for more hosts even if addresses are running out. The map found that roughly a quarter of all blocks of network addresses are still unused. IPv4 offers about 4.3 billion addresses, while IPv6, the next-generation Internet address scheme, will offer 51 thousand trillion trillion addresses.

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