Editing Address pool

{{short description|Set of addresses in the IP address allocation hierarchy}}
In the context of the [[Internet]] addressing structure, an '''address pool''' is a set of [[Internet Protocol]] addresses available at any level in the [[IP address allocation#IP addresses|IP address allocation]] hierarchy. At the top level, the IP address pool is managed by the [[Internet Assigned Numbers Authority]] (IANA). The total [[IPv4]] address pool contains {{gaps|4|294|967|296}} (2<sup>32</sup>) addresses, while the size of the [[IPv6]] address pool is 2<sup>128</sup> ({{gaps|340|282|366|920|938|463|463|374|607|431|768|211|456}}) addresses.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.ripe.net/info/info-services/addressing.html |title=Understanding IP Addressing |publisher=RIPE NCC |accessdate=2010-08-02| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20100723105827/http://www.ripe.net/info/info-services/addressing.html| archivedate= 23 July 2010 | url-status= live}}</ref>

In the context of application design, an address pool may be the availability of a set of addresses ([[IP address]], [[MAC address]]) available to an application that is shared among its users,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.openbsd.org/faq/pf/pools.html |title=Address Pools and Load Balancing |publisher=OpenBSD |accessdate=2010-08-02}}</ref> or available for allocation to users, such as in host configurations with the [[Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol]] (DHCP).

==See also==
* [[Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol]]
* [[IPv4 address exhaustion]]
* [[List of assigned /8 IPv4 address blocks]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Internet architecture]]


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