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IETF RFC 6346
[ACTIVE]

The Address plus Port (A+P) Approach to the IPv4 Address Shortage

Metadata

Publisher
IETF
Doc Type
Experimental
Pages
38
Abstract
We are facing the exhaustion of the IANA IPv4 free IP address pool. Unfortunately, IPv6 is not yet deployed widely enough to fully replace IPv4, and it is unrealistic to expect that this is going to change before the depletion of IPv4 addresses. Letting hosts seamlessly communicate in an IPv4 world without assigning a unique globally routable IPv4 address to each of them is a challenging problem. This document proposes an IPv4 address sharing scheme, treating some of the port number bits as part of an extended IPv4 address (Address plus Port, or A+P). Instead of assigning a single IPv4 address to a single customer device, we propose to extend the address field by using bits from the port number range in the TCP/UDP header as additional endpoint identifiers, thus leaving a reduced range of ports available to applications. This means assigning the same IPv4 address to multiple clients (e.g., Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), mobile phones), each with its assigned port range. In the face of IPv4 address exhaustion, the need for addresses is stronger than the need to be able to address thousands of applications on a single host. If address translation is needed, the end-user should be in control of the translation process -- not some smart boxes in the core. This document defines an Experimental Protocol for the Internet community.
Publication Date
2011-08-01
Status Note
Experimental
DOI
10.17487/RFC6346
Link
https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC6346
Author(s)
Randy Bush
Latest version of IETF RFC 6346

Document Versions — IETF RFC 6346

  • ▶ IETF RFC 6346 (2011-08-01)
    THIS DOC [ACTIVE] [LATEST VERSION]

Normative Reference(s)

Bibliographic Reference(s)

  • Wing, D., Cheshire, S., Boucadair, M., Penno, R., and P. Selkirk, "Port Control Protocol (PCP)", Work in Progress, July 2011. EXTERNAL
  • Dec, W., Asati, R., Bao, C., and H. Deng, "Stateless 4Via6 Address Sharing", Work in Progress, July 2011. EXTERNAL
  • Bajko, G., Savolainen, T., Boucadair, M., and P. Levis, "Port Restricted IP Address Assignment", Work in Progress, September 2010. EXTERNAL
  • Thaler, D., "Issues With Port-Restricted IP Addresses" , Work in Progress, February 2010. EXTERNAL
  • Despres, R., Matsushima, S., Murakami, T., and O. Troan, "IPv4 Residual Deployment across IPv6-Service networks (4rd) ISP-NAT's made optional", Work in Progress, March 2011. EXTERNAL
  • Deng, X., Boucadair, M., and F. Telecom, "Implementing A+P in the provider's IPv6-only network", Work in Progress, March 2011. EXTERNAL
  • Boucadair, M., Levis, P., Bajko, G., Savolainen, T., and T. ZOU), "Huawei Port Range Configuration Options for PPP IPCP", Work in Progress, June 2011. EXTERNAL
  • Boucadair, M., Levis, P., Grimault, J., Savolainen, T., and G. Bajko, "Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCPv6) Options for Shared IP Addresses Solutions", Work in Progress, December 2009. EXTERNAL
  • Boucadair, M., Grimault, J., Levis, P., and A. Villefranque, "Behavior of BitTorrent service in an IP Shared Address Environment", Work in Progress, March 2011. EXTERNAL
  • IETF RFC 1191 [Active*]
  • IETF RFC 1858 [Active*]
  • IETF RFC 1918 [Active*]
  • IETF RFC 2827 [Active*]
  • IETF RFC 3715 [Active*]
  • IETF RFC 5737 [Active*]
  • IETF RFC 6052 [Active*]
  • IETF RFC 6146 [Active*]
  • IETF RFC 6269 [Active*]
  • IETF RFC 6333 [Active*]
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IETF RFC 6346, The Address plus Port (A+P) Approach to the IPv4 Address Shortage. Available at https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC6346
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IETF RFC 6346, The Address plus Port (A+P) Approach to the IPv4 Address Shortage. Available at https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC6346

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IETF RFC 6346, The Address plus Port (A+P) Approach to the IPv4 Address Shortage. Available at https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC6346
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<span class="citation"><cite>IETF RFC 6346</cite>, The Address plus Port (A+P) Approach to the IPv4 Address Shortage. Available at <a href="https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC6346" target="_blank" rel="noopener">https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC6346</a></span>

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IETF RFC 6346, The Address plus Port (A+P) Approach to the IPv4 Address Shortage
doi: 10.17487/RFC6346
url: https://doi.org/10.17487/RFC6346
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<cite id="bib-rfc6346">IETF RFC 6346</cite>, The Address plus Port (A+P) Approach to the IPv4 Address Shortage
<span class="doi">10.17487/RFC6346</span>
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