4 ms·
In a sense they did limit it. The "Class D" space has always been off-limits, so it's never been 2^32. The usable range is 1.0.0.0 through 126.255.255.255 and
by astrodust 11y ago
In a sense they did limit it. The "Class D" space has always been off-limits, so it's never been 2^32.
The usable range is 1.0.0.0 through 126.255.255.255 and 128.0.0.0 through 233.255.255.255. The rest is reserved for various reasons or used for other purposes. That nibbles about 10% of the address space away.
They could've imposed more limits this way, but that might've seemed too heavy handed and would just lead to severe hacks and work-arounds.
It's a Catch-22. Switching to an IPv6-like address space in the mid 1990s would've been easier, but if it caused a lot of turbulence, it would've slowed the adoption of the IP technology in the first place, meaning the conversion was less urgent.