Jan, 2002 : Global Crossing Releases Free IP Addressing Software
📅 - Global Crossing Ltd. (globalcrossing.com) announcedyesterday that it is making available to Internet service providers andother organizations a free software tool that can help them manage andassign Internet Protocol address space to customers more efficiently. Thedecision to offer the FreeIPdb tool free-of-charge, along with supportservices, stems from Global Crossing's participation in an effort by the IPengineering community to prolong the life of the current IPv4 system untilthe next-generation IPv6 system becomes broadly available.
The current IPv4 address space consists of 4.6 billion IP addressesworldwide. Nearly half of the current address space has been assigned, andIPv4 addresses could be depleted by the year 2005 or 2006. Many ISPs do nothave an efficient algorithm to assign these numbers to their customers, thecompany said. This has resulted in a global effort within the IP engineeringcommunity to promote conservation and the most efficient distributionpossible until IPv6 is widely available.
FreeIPdb is a flexible software tool that creates a streamlined allocationprocess and provides a method for auditing existing address space usage,which enhances the ability of Border Gateway Protocol tables to managerouter information. The tool was developed in 2000 by Ben April, a GlobalCrossing network engineer, and has been used by the company to allocate morethan 2 million IP addresses in parcels that range in size from two to fouraddresses up to thousands of addresses, in the most mathematicallyconservative way possible.
"IPv4 addressing is an increasingly scarce resource," said Zeus Kerravala,senior analyst at The Yankee Group. "Global Crossing's Free IPdb softwaretool offers a unique functional capability on a global scale that enhancesthe efficiency of IP addressing and IP management, putting more control backinto the hands of the service provider."
ISPs and other organizations that assign IP address space to internal orexternal business units can download FreeIPdb at freeipdb.org. Support forthe tool is being provided by April and Paul Benjes, director of GlobalCrossing's access planning and implementation group, via the Web site.
"The FreeIPdb tool has been a boon to our IP network routing," said JohnLegere, CEO of Global Crossing. "We're pleased to make it available to helpthe entire IP community get maximum advantage from IPv4 as IPv6 is beingglobally deployed."
IP addresses under IPv4 are 32-bit numbers often expressed as four octets in"dotted decimal" notation. Three registry services are responsible foroverseeing the allocation of IP address space. The American Registry forInternet Numbers distributes IP address space in the U.S. Reseaux IPEuropees Network Coordination Centre currently serves Europe, the MiddleEast, and Africa. Asia Pacific Network Information Centre supports theAsia/Pacific region. These nonprofit entities receive IP addresses from theInternet Assigned Numbers Authority, and in turn provide them to ISPs. IANAis affiliated with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers,which is responsible for overall management of IP address space and domainnames.
Benjes and April, who are active in global IP engineering organizations suchas the Internet Engineering Task Force and the North American NetworkOperators' Groups, recognized the impact that widespread use of FreeIPdbwould have. "We distributed e-mail within the IP engineering community todetermine if there was interest in the tool. In two days, we received morethan 60 requests - people were begging for the tool," said April.
In addition to enabling ISPs to manage distribution of IP addresses to theircustomers more efficiently now, FreeIPdb is engineered to work with IPv6."The smallest routable block in IPv6 is 322 times larger than all of IPv4address space. It is therefore crucial that good tools exist to deal withthe assignment and allocation of that space. There would be no need tocreate a new tool or adapt FreeIPdb when IPv6 is available," said April.
The current IPv4 address space consists of 4.6 billion IP addressesworldwide. Nearly half of the current address space has been assigned, andIPv4 addresses could be depleted by the year 2005 or 2006. Many ISPs do nothave an efficient algorithm to assign these numbers to their customers, thecompany said. This has resulted in a global effort within the IP engineeringcommunity to promote conservation and the most efficient distributionpossible until IPv6 is widely available.
FreeIPdb is a flexible software tool that creates a streamlined allocationprocess and provides a method for auditing existing address space usage,which enhances the ability of Border Gateway Protocol tables to managerouter information. The tool was developed in 2000 by Ben April, a GlobalCrossing network engineer, and has been used by the company to allocate morethan 2 million IP addresses in parcels that range in size from two to fouraddresses up to thousands of addresses, in the most mathematicallyconservative way possible.
"IPv4 addressing is an increasingly scarce resource," said Zeus Kerravala,senior analyst at The Yankee Group. "Global Crossing's Free IPdb softwaretool offers a unique functional capability on a global scale that enhancesthe efficiency of IP addressing and IP management, putting more control backinto the hands of the service provider."
ISPs and other organizations that assign IP address space to internal orexternal business units can download FreeIPdb at freeipdb.org. Support forthe tool is being provided by April and Paul Benjes, director of GlobalCrossing's access planning and implementation group, via the Web site.
"The FreeIPdb tool has been a boon to our IP network routing," said JohnLegere, CEO of Global Crossing. "We're pleased to make it available to helpthe entire IP community get maximum advantage from IPv4 as IPv6 is beingglobally deployed."
IP addresses under IPv4 are 32-bit numbers often expressed as four octets in"dotted decimal" notation. Three registry services are responsible foroverseeing the allocation of IP address space. The American Registry forInternet Numbers distributes IP address space in the U.S. Reseaux IPEuropees Network Coordination Centre currently serves Europe, the MiddleEast, and Africa. Asia Pacific Network Information Centre supports theAsia/Pacific region. These nonprofit entities receive IP addresses from theInternet Assigned Numbers Authority, and in turn provide them to ISPs. IANAis affiliated with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers,which is responsible for overall management of IP address space and domainnames.
Benjes and April, who are active in global IP engineering organizations suchas the Internet Engineering Task Force and the North American NetworkOperators' Groups, recognized the impact that widespread use of FreeIPdbwould have. "We distributed e-mail within the IP engineering community todetermine if there was interest in the tool. In two days, we received morethan 60 requests - people were begging for the tool," said April.
In addition to enabling ISPs to manage distribution of IP addresses to theircustomers more efficiently now, FreeIPdb is engineered to work with IPv6."The smallest routable block in IPv6 is 322 times larger than all of IPv4address space. It is therefore crucial that good tools exist to deal withthe assignment and allocation of that space. There would be no need tocreate a new tool or adapt FreeIPdb when IPv6 is available," said April.
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