The requirement of IP address resource is growing rapidly and has been over the former anticipation

a 32 bits IP address length

because the computer networks

telcom networks and cable networks are converging to IP-based Next Generation networks（NGN）. Methods to solve the address scarcity problem can be divided into two types: 1) More addresses

i.e.

to utilize longer address length

such as IPv6

which are a medium-long term solutions. 2) More efficiency

i.e

to improve usage efficiency

such as using network address translation（NAT）

a kind of multiplexing technologies

which are a short-medium term solution. The paper analyzes and compares the current situations and problems of these two technologies.