Key trends
APNIC, as the Regional Internet Registry (RIR) for the Asia Pacific region, delegates IP addresses (IPv4 and IPv6) and Autonomous System Numbers (ASNs). Representing 56 economies, including China and India, APNIC ensures the fair distribution and responsible management of these resources for the continuing stability and secure operations of the Internet.
The remaining IPv4 address pool at IANA is predicted to exhaust in 2011. While adoption of IPv6 is preferable, techniques and policies such as Network Address Translation (NAT), reclaiming and recycling unused IPv4 addresses, and optimizing IPv4 addresses currently in use have successfully slowed the consumption of IPv4 addresses. Adoption of IPv6, which provides an extremely large address space, was developed as the long-term replacement for IPv4. IPv6 provides the potential for unhindered Internet growth and the opportunity to create new business opportunities and lead to the development of innovative products and services.
Delegations of Internet addresses highlight the following key trends:
- Currently more address space is being allocated in the Asia Pacific region than any other region, reflecting the rapid rate of Internet development in this part of the world.
- The rate of IPv4 consumption in the Asia Pacific has been increasing exponentially as telecommunication infrastructure is rapidly deployed throughout the region.
- Since 2006 the rate of IPv6 allocations has accelerated, indicating an increased awareness of IPv4 free pool exhaustion.
- ASN delegation is increasing in a linear fashion, reflecting a gradual maturity of the Internet industry in the Asia Pacific region.
In line with the growth in IP address allocations is the growth in APNIC membership. Over the past several years, APNIC has experienced substantial membership growth.