The Empty Pool
The follow-up to my post on the C sockets API has been a long time in coming. It’s been a bit of a crazy semester, but I assure you we’re closing in on a time when I will consider the OO wrapper ready for public release.
But I’ve been sidetracked. Where?
I did some research (the exact in-depth details and findings perhaps are fodder for a future entry) and concluded, that, as a responsible citizen of the Internet, from now on, whenever I write a networked application, I am going to ensure that it is IPv6 compliant. Really – that’s why I’m rewriting my Socket class. Are you man (or women) enough to match that?
For some time now, we’ve known that the IPv4 address space is running low. It’s estimated that by mid-2011, the IANA will deplete it’s unallocated pool of IPv4 addresses. Following this well into 2012, the first RIR is projected to deplete it’s store of addresses. Some people claim that these estimates are entirely too aggressive, and that we’ve got a good plenty years of unallocated IPv4 addresses left. Perhaps (and hopefully) that is the case. Whenever it happens (even if it’s ten years from now), though, it WILL happen, regardless. We’d be wasting our time to try and eek out every last IP4v address, instead of adopting the next wave.
So the unallocated IPv4 address pool is running dry. If nothing is done, no new clients will be able to connect to the ‘Net. Why aren’t you running around like a chicken with your head cut off? One of two reasons, I estimate. Either A) because you know about this impending deadline and have taken steps to assure that your organization is either prepared or preparing to be fully IPv6 compliant or B) you either had no idea IPv4 was running out, knew and didn’t care, or knew but didn’t have sufficient motivation to upset yourself migrating.
If you’re in group A, I applaud and respect you and your proactive tenacity. Please advise us that are less enlightened and experienced. Guide us. Mentor us.
If you’re in group B, fear not. I’m still in the middle of the transition myself. Journey along with me. Write your war stories here. We’ll learn something, it’ll be fun, and you’ll be ready when the IPv4 crunch hits. Bonus points if you’re an administrator, and you update your dns/web/mail/ftp/etc services for IPv6 compliance!
Wherever you sit, I think you can agree that it’s high time we, as a community, embrace this opportunity to advance ourselves. It’s not a chicken-and-egg problem. We HAVE the technology – we just have to jump on the bandwagon.
