Google has 79 billion billion billion IPv6 addresses, is buying up massive amounts of dark fiber, and building a massive data center. Just what is Google up to?
This is blog about “Google’s secret IPv6 plans”. It appears that Google owns a block of IPv6 addresses numbering approximately 7.9 x 1028 (79 billion billion billion addresses) or 296. Basically Google owns any IPv6 address from:
2001:4860:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000:0000
to
2001:4860:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF
Net Range 2001:4860:: - 2001:4860:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF:FFFF CIDR 2001:4860::/32 Name GOOGLE-IPV6 Handle NET6-2001-4860-1 Parent ARIN-004 (NET6-2001-4800-0) Net Type Direct Allocation Origin AS AS15169 Organization Google Inc. (GOGL) Registration Date 2005-03-14 Last Updated 2012-02-24
ARIN (the organization that allocates IP addresses on the Internet) only gives IP blocks of this size to ISP for the purpose of reselling to end users and companies. Put this in the context of Google’s continued purchase of dark fiber (unused fiber optic cabling, much of it left from the dotcom era) and the construction of a massive data center, it’s clear that Google is trying to position itself in the heart of the Internet.