Understanding IPv4: The Original Internet Protocol

IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses, creating a pool of 4,294,967,296 possible combinations according to RIPE documentation. Each address consists of four groups of numbers separated by periods, with each group ranging from 0 to 255. This format became the backbone of internet communication when the protocol was launched in 1983.

The structure appeared sufficient at first, with four billion addresses for a network that began with only a few thousand computers. The introduction of smartphones, tablets, smart home devices, and industrial sensors increased demand for IP addresses. Wikipedia reports that APNIC became the first regional Internet registry to exhaust its freely allocated IPv4 addresses on April 15, 2011. By November 25, 2019, RIPE NCC announced it had allocated its final remaining addresses, officially running out of IPv4 space.

IPv6: Built for Exponential Growth IPv6 addresses use 128 bits, resulting in 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 unique addresses as stated by RIPE. ICANN refers to this as 340 undecillion addresses. The format shifts from four decimal groups to eight groups of hexadecimal numbers separated by colons, such as 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334.

The expanded address space of IPv6 eliminates the shortage of IP addresses. IPv6 was designed to accommodate long-term growth in the number of connected devices. Googles IPv6 Statistics show that global adoption is currently between 45% and 49%, with higher usage on weekends. France has the highest adoption of Google connectivity at 75.02%, followed by Germany at 73.3%, according to IPXO data.