IPv4 Markets

IP Address Space Covered by Certificates

Since the RIPE NCC launched its Resource Certification service, there is a steady increase in the number of prefixes covered by certificates. The Resource Certification (RPKI) service was launched at the beginning of 2011. The system enables network operators to perform Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) origin validation, which means that they can securely verify if a BGP route announcement has been authorised by the legitimate holder of the address block.

Breaking the Internet HOWTO: The Unintended Consequences of Governmental Actions

"Breaking the Internet" is really hard to do. The network of networks is decentralized, resilient and has no Single Point Of Failure. That was the paradigm of the first few decades of Internet history, and most people involved in Internet Governance still carry that model around in their heads. Unfortunately, that is changing and changing rapidly due to misguided government intervention.

Borders, In Bankruptcy, Aims To Sell 65,536 IPv4 Addresses at $12/Address

With IPv4 address exhaustion upon us, it appears that the going market rate for IPv4 addresses is now $12/address. Over at the Register, Kevin Murphy reports on a bankruptcy filing from Borders seeking to sell a /16 block of to healthcare software vendor Cerner for a total of $786,432. At $12 per IPv4 address, this sets a new public record given that the previous high was Microsoft's acquisition of a block of Nortel IPv4 addresses...

DNS Measurements with RIPE Atlas Data

As described in New RIPE Atlas Features in the Making, each RIPE Atlas probe performs "anycast instance discovery" measurements. This means, for each DNS root name server, we determine which instance of a name server a probe uses. We compile the data from all probes and build maps showing these results for each Atlas probe. In other words, the map shows the "gravitational radius" for root DNS server instances.

ARIN Launches WHOWAS: Trial Service Providing Historical Information for a Given IP Address

American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) is running a trial service that gives users access to historical IP whois data – that is, it will tell you who was responsible for an IP address or block of IPs. The service is not automated and if you want to access it you will need to submit a request via email with information about not only what you want to know, but why you are interested in accessing the information.

IPv6 Deployment from a Different Perspective

Often when looking at IPv6 deployment statistics, the size of the organisation or the network is not taken into account. In this article, we look at IPv6 deployment of Local Internet Registries (LIRs) per country in correlation to the size of the LIR. When looking at IPv6 deployment at the LIR level, we can look at the following two metrics...

IPv6 RIPEness: More Smaller and Younger Organizations Deploying IPv6

The number of RIPE NCC members [also referred to as Local Internet Registries (LIRs)] that have an IPv6 allocation continues to grow -- in absolute terms as well as in percentages. 46% of all RIPE NCC members have one or more IPv6 RIPEness stars. ... Do new members pick up IPv6? Are older members with more experience, well-established businesses and customer base dominating IPv6 RIPEness scores? And what about the size of a member? Are small and large members adopting IPv6 in equal proportions? In this article we look into answering these questions.

IPv4 Historical Imbalances and the Threat to IPv6

It is an open secret that the current state of IPv4 allocation contains many accidental historical imbalances and in particular developing countries who wish to use IPv4 are disadvantaged by the lack of addresses available through ordinary allocation and are forced into purchasing addresses on the open market. As most of the addresses for sale are held by organisations based in the developed world, this amounts to a transfer of wealth from the developing world to the developed world, on terms set by the developed world.

Visibility of Prefix Lengths in IPv4 and IPv6

Internet routes are specified for an address prefix. The shorter the prefix, the more general the route. A shorter prefix covers more address space and thus a bigger part of the Internet. Very long prefixes cover few addresses and are used for local routing close to the destination address. In general, it is not necessary to distribute very long prefixes to the whole Internet, because a more general, shorter prefix is sufficient to direct packets in the direction of the destination.

A Look at the Growth of the Internet Routing System

Geoff Huston, APNIC's Chief Scientist, is visiting the RIPE NCC this week to spend time with his fellow Regional Internet Registries (RIR) colleagues and to strengthen collaboration on shared projects. We've used this opportunity to invite him to produce the 'Interesting Graph of the Week'. Geoff has been monitoring the global routing system for many years. Here are his most recent observations.