Why the World’s IPv4 Addresses Ran Out and What It Means for the Future
On November 25, 2019, the last remaining IPv4 addresses were allocated by RIPE NCC, marking the global exhaustion of the 4.3 billion‑address pool; the article recounts the regional allocation timeline, the role of the five RIRs, and highlights ongoing IPv6 adoption, especially in China.
On 25 November 2019 at 15:35 UTC+1 (22:35 Beijing time), RIPE NCC performed the final allocation from its available pool, confirming that the world’s IPv4 address space – roughly 4.3 billion addresses – has been completely exhausted.
The exhaustion is the culmination of a long‑term trend: the top‑level IPv4 address block was already depleted in 2012, after the five Regional Internet Registries (RIRs) had allocated all available space to their members. The final allocations per region occurred as follows:
15 April 2011 – APNIC (Asia‑Pacific) allocated its last IPv4 block.
10 June 2014 – LACNIC (Latin America and Caribbean) allocated its last IPv4 block.
24 September 2015 – ARIN (North America) allocated its last IPv4 block.
25 November 2019 – RIPE NCC (Europe, Middle East, and parts of Central Asia) allocated its last IPv4 block.
Although IPv4 addresses are no longer available, the transition to IPv6 has been underway for years. For example, the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) reported that by May 2019, China had 311 million active IPv6 users, illustrating significant progress in IPv6 deployment.
IT Architects Alliance
Discussion and exchange on system, internet, large‑scale distributed, high‑availability, and high‑performance architectures, as well as big data, machine learning, AI, and architecture adjustments with internet technologies. Includes real‑world large‑scale architecture case studies. Open to architects who have ideas and enjoy sharing.
How this landed with the community
Was this worth your time?
0 Comments
Thoughtful readers leave field notes, pushback, and hard-won operational detail here.