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
