Veteran network architect proposes IPv8 – to improve IPv4, not leapfrog v6
Jump to main content
Search
REG AD
Networks
Veteran network architect proposes IPv8 – to improve IPv4, not leapfrog v6
Critics are not convinced this plan to add an ‘area code’ based on ASNs has much merit
Simon Sharwood
Simon<br>Sharwood
APAC Editor
Published<br>tue 12 May 2026 // 05:44 UTC
A veteran network architect named James Thain has drafted a<br>proposal for “Internet Protocol Version 8” (IPv8) and hopes to crowdfund work<br>to create a testbed that will demonstrate his ideas.<br>Thain’s proposal<br>appeared as an Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Internet-Draft on April<br>16th. Like all such documents, it has no official standing – the<br>multistakeholder systems under which the internet is governed allow open<br>participation and this is Thain’s contribution.
REG AD
The draft opens with a bold vision for IPv8, describing it<br>as “a managed network protocol suite that transforms how networks of every<br>scale – from home networks to the global internet – are operated, secured, and<br>monitored.”
REG AD
On the IPv8 website he describes it as “a managed network protocol suite that resolves IPv4<br>exhaustion, unifies network management, and stays 100 percent backward<br>compatible — no flag day, no forced migration.”<br>The draft protocol is also “a proper subset of IPv8. An IPv8<br>address with the routing prefix field set to zero is an IPv4 address. No<br>existing device, application, or network requires modification.”
MORE CONTEXT
HPE drops first Juniper x Aruba collab – self-driving Wi-Fi
IPv6 carried half of internet traffic – for one day, according to Google
AI vastly reduced stress of IPv6 migrations in university experiment
IPv6 just turned 30 and still hasn’t taken over the world, but don't call it a failure
In conversation with The Register, Thain<br>said he created the IPv8 draft because existing protocols were developed for<br>the networking problems of the day, and things have now well and truly moved<br>on. He also thinks that few organizations other than hyperscalers and network<br>operators have a good reason to adopt IPv6, because it doesn’t offer major<br>improvements over IPv4 and migrations to the newer protocol seldom produce<br>return on investment.<br>He allows that IPv4 exhaustion means many organizations and<br>network operators do need to consider IPv6 but feels the best course of action<br>is to improve IPv4 so users get a better protocol without the need for upgrades.<br>One improvement in IPv8 expands the IPv4 numberspace by<br>adding what he calls an “area code” based on a network operator autonomous<br>system number (ASN), the unique identifiers assigned to networks by regional<br>internet registries. ASNs effectively function as addresses for a network, to inform<br>routing decisions.<br>IPv8 proposes an address format r.r.r.r.n.n.n.n where the<br>“r” is the ASN address encoded as a 32-bit integer and the “n” is a<br>conventional IPv4 address.<br>This scheme means every ASN holder gets 232 host addresses<br>– 4,294,967,296 addresses apiece. Thain thinks that will suffice for almost<br>every organization, and those who need more probably already operate multiple ASNs.<br>His scheme would see the IPv4 numberspace expand to around 30 trillion (3 x<br>1013) unique addresses. That’s well short of the 340 undecillion 3.4 x 1038<br>addresses available under IPv6, but Thain thinks it’s still enough and that<br>users will appreciate not having to migrate away from IPv4.
REG AD
“It doesn’t require a ton of changes to Border Gateway<br>Protocol which already knows how to route multiple protocols,” Thain told us. “So<br>does MPLS.”<br>IPv8 therefore “gives you a roll forward of IPv4, you just<br>need servers to translate the ‘area codes’. The rest of the stack is all<br>well-known,” Thain said. “There is no magic here, it is just an area code plus<br>IPv4<br>Another IPv8 feature is what Thain calls a “Zone server”<br>that his draft explains “runs every service a network segment requires: address<br>assignment (DHCP8), name resolution (DNS8), time synchronisation (NTP8),<br>telemetry collection (NetLog8), authentication caching (OAuth8), route<br>validation (WHOIS8 resolver), access control enforcement (ACL8), and IPv4/IPv8<br>translation (XLATE8).”<br>IPv8 has caused a stir in internetworking circles, and some bitter criticism and . One reader wrote to us and called IPv8 "a distraction and waste of time." Observers have labeled some of IPv8's features "heinous."<br>Others have been more nuanced. Silvan Gephart of ISP Openfactory blogged about the draft and said “I like that there is a proposal thinking<br>about the routing table, addressing, management, authentication and operational<br>complexity as one bigger problem.”<br>Some of the criticism levelled at the protocol suggests it’s<br>the work of AI. Thain doesn’t shy away from having used chatbots to work on his<br>draft and told The Register he feels doing so is<br>contemporary practice.<br>He thinks he can prove the nay-sayers wrong by building an<br>IPv8 testbed and has commenced a crowdfunding campaign...