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 South Asia has increased significantly since 2006
- APNIC has experienced a 35 per cent growth in requests for IPv4 over the last two years
- The rate of IPv6 allocations has more than doubled since 2006 indicating an increased awareness of IPv4 free pool exhaustion.
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, from approximately 850 members in 2003 to 2,566 in 2008 (including 1,097 NIR members).