Introduction

What's about IOT impact on IP addresses. With smart city projects coming, smart homes and so on, we are talking about hundred billions of IOT devices to be interconnected.

IPv4, you are too small !

IPv4 is already short in addresses, even without IOT and thanks to smart engineers, we have deployed many workarounds, like NAT (Network Address Translation).
IPv4 allows IP addresses to be coded over 4 bytes (a byte is a word of 8 bits), so 32 bits. Therefore, the number of possible combinations is 2ˆ32 = 4 294 967 296 # 4 Billions.
We are about eight billions people, using smart phones, digital tablets, computers, IP TV boxes and so on. And there are now more machines connected to Internet than people. 
Conclusion: We have crossed the 4 billions need of addresses in 2012 !!! So, IOT will not fly with IPv4, even using workarounds.

IPv6. The big guy?

IPv6 allow IP addresses to be coded over 16 bytes, so 128 bits. Therefore, the number of possible combinations is 2ˆ128 # 340 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 # 3.4E38.

It is big, but how big it is? Let’s compute the number of addresses we can use per sqm on earth. Even on the sea, and above the sea, we will have IOT with modern ships, airplanes and satellites and much more. So, let’s compute it.
Average earth’s radius is 6 371 000 meters. 
Total earth area equals to 4xPIxRˆ2 = 510 064 471 909 788 # 5.1E14 sqm.
 

How many nodes per sqm?

3.4E38 / 5.1E14 # 6.7E23 = 670 000 000 000 000 000 000 000 nodes with an IP address can fit in one sqm  !!!

Conclusion

Even in 1000 years we will never fill the gap.

Good news, we have enough IP addresses with IPv6 for thousand and thousand years.