Due to the limited number of IP addresses available under the current IPv4 protocol, there is a growing need for more addresses. The IPv4 protocol specifies a 32-bit IP address length, providing 2^32-1 addresses, but these addresses have all been used up due to the way IP addresses are allocated and used. To address this issue, the IPv6 protocol is being developed, which can offer a larger pool of public IP addresses.

Public network IP addresses have become a lucrative business due to the shortage of available addresses. For instance, in a telecommunications office in Jiangsu, a 100M broadband connection with a non-fixed IP costs around 8000 yuan annually, while a fixed 20M public network IP costs 40000 yuan per year. Companies can use these designated public network IPs to set up servers and secure encrypted tunnels. Although there are 8,000 routes in the network of a top 500 customer group, all of which are general network segments, it's remarkable that companies with public IPs are making a fortune, while those who clamored for the exhaustion of IP addresses didn't get any.

In theory and practice, the use of multi-layer NAT technology can alleviate the shortage of IP addresses. However, while hosts behind NAT can access the internet, hosts on the internet can't access them without static NAT configuration on each layer. This creates a significant configuration workload when there are multiple layers. Moreover, since most hosts behind NAT provide HTTP services on port 80, and public network IP addresses only offer one port, many companies need to use multiple public network IPs to deliver HTTP services.

Although multi-layer NAT can help alleviate the shortage of IP addresses, a considerable pool of public IP addresses is still needed for customers who require public network IP addresses.

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