Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!apple!bionet!agate!ucbvax!A.ISI.EDU!CERF
From: CERF@A.ISI.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.protocols.tcp-ip
Subject: Re: Running out of Internet addresses?
Message-ID: <[A.ISI.EDU]27-Nov-88.09:14:45.CERF>
Date: 27 Nov 88 14:14:00 GMT
References: <3614@phri.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 13

Roy,

As you noted, the allocations are often larger than the actual host count
because of the way net numbers must be bound to a chunk of address space
in the 32 bit formats available.

We should be worried about this and should be thinking about how to expand
the available address space. Possibilities include adopting ISO IP
numbering (variable length - non-trivial), introducing a 64 bit
format (a new IP version number would probably be needed), adding
an extended address option (awkward, I suspect), others?

Vint Cerf