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P
ART OF THE
success of the Internet is that it allows us to
take addressing for granted. We can send an e-mail, read a
foreign news site, or make a voice over Internet protocol
(VoIP) phone call from an Internet cafe, and generally be confi-
dent that our messages will reach their destinations and that the
data we need will find its way to our computer. But the simplic-
ity of using the Internet belies a complex addressing system
dependent on technical and policy considerations. This article
aims to introduce and demystify Internet addressing and explain
the organisations and structures which have evolved to manage
and protect the Internet addressing system, particularly the
Regional Internet Registries (RIRs).
What is the Internet?
The Internet, once an obscure academic project, is today a vast,
ubiquitous global network, which has changed the lives of
hundreds of millions of people. It has provided new opportuni-
ties for business, leisure, and human development and has
become the single greatest catalyst for the new vision of an infor-
mation society. Yet its potential remains largely untapped and, in
future, it is expected to provide much, much more. The Internet
is the infrastructure upon which tomorrow’s society will be built
and on which are pinned, in a very real way, the collective hopes
and aspirations of the current World Summit on the Information
Society (WSIS) process.
The expansion of the Internet has astonished many of us.
However, it is important to understand that it did not ‘just happen’.
Its success – both in its own right and in competition with the
many alternatives that have existed – can be attributed not to good
luck, nor simply to nearly three decades of development, but in
fact to a set of very specific characteristics. The Internet is:
• An open network, which anyone can join and use, for any
purpose they choose
• A free network, whose fundamental operating protocols are
available without charge for anyone to adopt, use, and
improve
• A distributed network, comprising very few centralized admin-
istrative or management functions
• An end-to-end network, allowing any point to connect to any
other, no matter where they are located
• A global ‘inter-network’ (as its name implies), comprised of
many separate networks, all of which can operate indepen-
dently, yet communicate freely.
Together, these essential features define the Internet.
What is an IP address?
An IP address is an Internet identifier, which includes informa-
tion about how to reach a network location via the Internet
routing system. Every device directly connected to the Internet
must have an IP address, whether it is a home computer, a PDA,
a router, or an ISP’s web server. Every IP address must be unique
for these devices to connect to the Internet and to each other.
IP addresses are available for use, on a non-permanent basis,
by anyone who needs them. But, as a finite common resource, IP
addresses are never owned by their users and are not commodi-
ties to be traded. There are two types of IP addresses in use on
the Internet – IPv4 and IPv6 – for example:
• 205.150.58.7 (IPv4)
• 2001:0503:0C27:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000 (IPv6)
IP addresses identify not only the device itself, but also the loca-
tion of the device, as a member of a particular network. IP
addresses contain a prefix which identifies a network, much like
a phone number prefix identifies a country or city. They are allo-
cated in large blocks to individual networks, just as blocks of
phone numbers are allocated to countries or regions.
However, the telephone analogy does not extend far. While
the phone network comprises a few hundred separate countries
and a few hundred network providers, the Internet is indepen-
dent of geography and includes over a hundred thousand
separate networks, linked by a complex set of interconnections.
The Regional Internet Registries: managing
Internet addresses for 12 years
The Number Resource Organization (NRO)
The Internet is everywhere. This Internet telecentre in Laos provides
valuable educational and training opportunities