Re: IPv4 address length technical design

[Marco Hogewoning <mch-nanog () xs4all nl>]

On Oct 4, 2012, at 12:21 AM, Owen DeLong wrote:

> IEEE 802 was expected to provide unique numbers for all computers ever built.
>
> Internet was expected to provide unique numbers for all computers actively on the network.
>
> Obviously, over time, the latter would be a declining percentage of the former since the former is increasing and 
> never decrements while the latter could (theoretically) have a growth rate on either side of zero and certainly has 
> some decrements even if the increments exceed the decrements.

Which brings the question, are we expected to ever run out of the 48 bits for mac-addresses? Of course there are 
exceptions, but in most cases you can probably start recycling them after a certain period. And that period could even 
become shorter over time, I mean what are the chances you find a iPhone 1 in your network these days?

Marco