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A Quick Background on IP Addresses
Let’s start with the basics: what exactly are IP addresses? IP addresses are numbers given to devices on a network that use the Internet Protocol to communicate. It’s like the mailing address for your home on the internet; without it, sending and receiving information would be practically impossible. It allows devices to identify and communicate with one another.
Now, let’s discuss IPv4 addresses, which are based on the fourth version of the internet protocol. Since the beginning of the internet, they have been helpful. However, they do have limitations. The main limitation is the size of the IPv4 address space.
The Issue with IPv4 Address Space
How many possible IPv4 addresses are there?
The major limitation of the IPv4 protocol is the available address space. Each IPv4 address is a 32-bit address, meaning it consists of 32 ones and zeros. This provides for a total of 2^32, or around 4.3 billion, unique addresses.
There are 7 billion people on Earth, many with multiple internet-connected devices. There are many devices such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and IoT devices. It is easy to understand why 4.3 billion addresses may not be sufficient.
IPv4 Exhaustion
During the early days of the internet, this limitation wasn’t immediately apparent. Addresses were allocated generously, without foreseeing the explosive growth of connected devices. But as technology and accessibility surged forward, this address space began to show signs of strain.
Additional Limitations of IPv4
While the limitation of the IPv4 address space is a significant one, it’s not the only limitation of IPv4. The design of IPv4 is over three decades old, and it doesn’t inherently support some of the more modern needs:
1. Security Issues: IPv4 was designed at a time when the internet was more of an academic and research tool. The security measures were not a primary concern back then, and it shows. Despite building many security protocols and measures on top of it, IPv4 lacks inherent security features. This makes devices with IPv4 addresses potentially vulnerable to certain kinds of attacks.
2. Configuration: IPv4 often requires manual or DHCP-based address configuration, which can be cumbersome for large networks. This might not seem like a big deal, but when dealing with vast networks, automated and scalable systems become essential.
3. Routing and Network Management: IPv4’s header, which is the piece of data added to the front of a data packet to get it to its destination, is often considered inefficient. It doesn’t always deal effectively with the routing of data, causing a lag in the overall internet experience.
4. Quality of Service: Quality of Service (QoS) in IPv4 relies on the 8 bits of the IPv4 Type of Service (TOS) field and on payload identification. Due to the limited functionality of the IPv4 TOS field, payload identification isn’t possible when the IPv4 datagram packet payload is encrypted.
Future of IPv4
Given the numerous limitations of the IPv4 protocol, the depletion of its address space and the transition to IPv6 are inevitable. There is an increasing demand for IP addresses, resulting in waiting lists at IP registries. Businesses looking to acquire IPv4 space must either consider solutions like Carrier-grade NAT (CG-NAT) or purchase IPs from the secondary market.
