The RIPE NCC is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIPE_NCC
The Réseaux IP Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE NCC) is the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for Europe, the Middle East and parts of Central Asia. It is headquartered in Amsterdam, Netherlands.[1]
An RIR oversees the allocation and registration of Internet number resources (IPv4 addresses, IPv6 addresses and Autonomous System (AS) Numbers) in a specific region.
* RIPE according to their own announcement is now working on their last /8 CIDR block of IPv4 IP Address Space:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classless_Inter-Domain_Routing#IPv4_CIDR_blocks
Their last 16,777,216 hosts including in some cases network id’s, routers big and small, and computing devices (hosts) of all kinds. 16 million counts down rather quickly. Actually once they assign it out to their LIR’s (see their page) it’s gone for them and for anyone else. Of course this doesn’t mean that their Internet goes down … or that anybody gets kicked off … but it does mean that any LIR’s and the ISP’s that they serve (and their customers big and small) after this has to seek an alternate way to get onto the Internet. It’s a siren call. And they basically say that on their web page:
“It is now imperative that all stakeholders deploy IPv6 on their networks to ensure the continuity of their online operations and the future growth of the Internet.”
From the old original movie “Elizabeth” (and maybe heard it reality?) “The Queen is dead… Long Live the Queen”.
The new Queen (of Internet, IP Networks) is IPv6.
* It won’t be like “the lights go out” in those areas … and it won’t be like that as the IPv4 space runs out in other areas of the world, eventually even the U.S., but it will be announced publically online (will it hit the 6 o’clock news?)
* You would think that everyone worldwide has had plenty of time and plenty of warning about the running out of IPv4 Address Space … but some entities and organizations have dragged their feet. The most notable is in the “Last Mile” (even in the U.S.) which means the connection “drop” down to users premises. But hopefully this is changing, however slowly.
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Alan Spicer has been studying and brushing up on related topics towards IPv6 for a couple of years now. So when this “update” (like a software update) hits user equipment in Marine Telecom I will be ready. I have had Freenet6 for a few years (ran IPv6 on domains on my own servers for a couple years) which became Gogo6 … which I still have as a Tunnel onto IPv6 … Recent Internet updates here have us on AT&T’s IPv6 now.
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Alan Spicer
Alan Spicer Marine Telecom
+1 954 683 3426
communications @ marinetelecom.net