[address-policy-wg] RE: IPv6 addresses really are scarce after all

Looks to me like people are trying to use technology to effect their political goals.

I don't think that is a good idea, particularly since the process does not allow the goals to be stated or debated directly. So even if we agree on the end goals we are unlikely to end up with a mechanism that achieves them.

We went through all that with the crypto-wars. We ended up with a set of cryptography protocols that almost nobody uses.


I see no political reason to insist on a /48 as the minimum allocation. A /96 gives me more addresses than the old IPv4 space had. 

If we attempt to insist on a /x as the minimum allocation by introducing technical limitations that make it impossible to use less than a /x all we do is to make an allocation that could have been sufficient insufficient. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Arnt Gulbrandsen [mailto:arnt at gulbrandsen.priv.no] 
> Sent: Monday, August 27, 2007 5:11 AM
> To: ietf at ietf.org
> Cc: michael.dillon at bt.com; John C Klensin; Hallam-Baker, 
> Phillip; ppml at arin.net; address-policy-wg at ripe.net
> Subject: Re: IPv6 addresses really are scarce after all
> 
> Hallam-Baker, Phillip writes:
> > I don't see how such an architectural limitation can be enforced. 
> > There is no way that the IETF can prevent an ISP issuing IPv6 
> > customers a /128 if they choose.
> 
> Not directly, but there's the indirect route: a) IETF designs 
> IPv6 autoconfiguration. b) Linksys, D-Link, Netgear and 
> friends make boxes that support autoconfiguration. c) ISP 
> hand out /128s. d) Autoconfiguration doesn't work well. e) 
> Customers call ISP support. f) ISP loses $$$. g) ISP starts 
> issuing /48s instead.
> 
> I don't know the first thing about how IPv6 autoconfiguration 
> works. It worked very well in my previous office. Will it 
> work better when the router has a /48 at hand than a /64 or /128?
> 
> Arnt
>