Short History of IPv6

• IETF has been working on this since 1991
• So what was the big issue?
  • There weren't enough IP addresses to give out - The Internet was growing very fast
  • Class B's in high demand. Called the Gold-i-locks syndrome (one's too hot, one's too cold, middle one is just right)
  • Also called ROADs (running out of address space) problem
  • Routers don't have enough memory to hold routing tables
  • Older routing protocols could not carry all the routes that needed to be exchanged
  • Expected they would run out of class B addresses sometime in 1994.
• Bottom Line: A new IP was needed - and fast!