Abstract :
The world is about to run out of the IPv4 addresses that are critical to the operation of the Internet. It could happen in the next three months, maybe even two. Why? Because, difficult though it may be to believe, almost all of the more than four billion IP addresses defined in the current addressing scheme are already spoken for. The allocation of IP addresses is managed by an organisation called the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), which allocates them in blocks of 16,777,216 addresses. The IANA hands these blocks to five regional registries to distribute in smaller blocks to their customers. In Europe the regional registry is called RIPE NCC.
