Study of IPv4 Address Allocation by Continents

Overview of IP Address and Class Scheme

IPV4 addresses consist of 32 bits, which can support 4,294,967,296 (2^32) unique host

interface addresses in theory and represent a 4-bytes IP address by the dotted-decimal

notations such as 192.168.1.1.

IP address can be divided into a network part and a host part.

Same network have the same network prefix and the size of the network prefix is not

always the same due to different classes.

IP addressing scheme divides the total IP address space into five classes; A, B, C, D and

E.

Regional Internet Registries (RIR) and Assignment

IPv4 address spaces were managed directly by the Internet Assigned Numbers

Authority (IANA).

Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) recommended that Internet number resources

be managed by subsidiary organizations at a regional level.

There have five types of Regional Internet Registries (RIR) for regional allocation and

management role of IP address assignment which are APNIC, ARIN,RIPE NCC,

LACNIC and AFRINIC.

Hilbert Curve Mapping Hilbert curve mapping is used to represent the topology of IP address assignment by continents.

Hilbert curve is a continuous fractal space-filling curve that preserve the locality

The map contained the information of IPs ranging from 0.0.0.0 to 255.255.255.255 arranged into 256 blocks, in 16 x 16 matrix form.

Each block contains the geolocation information of the 1st octet of the IP address in the matrix.

The position of the blocks are not in a linear sequence from left to right due to the fractal space-filling as described in the Hilbert curve.

Hilbert Curve Mapping

Hilbert Curve Mapping

We grouped the geolocation information into 7 continents, namely the North America, South America,

Europe, Africa, Asia,Oceania and Antarctica and another two additional groups which are Unassigned and

Reserved IP addresses.

Hilbert Curve Mapping

IPv4 Address Exhaustion

IPv4 address exhaustion is the depletion of the pool of unallocated IPv4 addresses. Some unassigned IP address ranges in 2016 map is reserved by RIRs for future use of

IPv6 transition.

Explosive Growth in Asia

Based on the maps from 2007-2012 and Table 1,a significant increase in the number of IP addresses assigned in Asia by APNIC.

This trend has decreased due to the exhaustion of the IP address pool in the recent years.

Time Lapse IP Address Map

Time Lapse IP Address Map

Time Lapse IP Address Map

Time Lapse IP Address Map

Time Lapse IP Address Map