Telstra runs out of IPv4 addresses

[silicon_toad2000]

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/401918,telstra-runs-out-of-ipv4-addresses.aspx

ISOC says use of CGNAT could harm data retention scheme.

Telstra has revealed it has run out of IPv4 internet addresses, prompting warnings that its use of network addressing translation could impact the carrier’s ability to accurately collect customer metadata for the Government's proposed data retention scheme.

Carriers worldwide are being urged to move to the new IPv6 addressing system, which was created to overcome limitations to the quickly dwindling IPv4 address supply.

IPv6 can create a theoretically inexhaustible supply of addresses, but it is not interoperable with the older IPv4 protocol.

Telstra’s chief information security officer, Mike Burgess, last week revealed to iTnews that the carrier had run out of IPv4 address space, and was provisioning mobile services using carrier grade network address translation (CGNAT).

CGNAT is widely used to delay investment in IPv6 networks as it allows carriers to serve hundreds of devices behind IPv4 gateways, rather than assigning them an address from the virtually infinite pool of addresses available with the newer protocol.