Re: [sig-policy] Need to understand logic behind assigning /64 IPv6 addr
On 18/09/2011, at 9:42 AM, Usman Latif wrote:
> And I tend to disagree that if IPv6 did not have autoconfiguration feature, then IPv6 would have been devised with only 64 bits ?? It does not make sense coz then you are only increasing 32 bits more to the current size of the IP which IMO would not have been a significant increase in the IP size. IMO IPv6 was devised with 128 bits and was meant to address infinitely large number of hosts so that we never run out of addresses - and autoconfiguration etc were features added to IPv6 protocol later to make addressing easy.
> I see autoconfiguration as a feature only and nothing more than that.
> RFC 4291 does not pose any restriction or requirement on the IPv6 address assignment architecture that every subnet should or must be /64 or /48 etc and why it cannot be a /112 or something smaller.
Let me put this another way...
If IPv6 had been designed with 512 bits and then someone had suggested adding 64 for autoconf and it was increased to 576, would you be arguing for a greater allocation than 512 bits per host? I'll assume your answer is 'of course not because 512 bits is so big', in which case it should hopefully be clear that the discussion should not be about how the last 64 bits are used, but whether the bits proceeding those last 64 are enough and how they are used.
It seems clear from Owen's maths that the first 64 bits is plenty provided that if our current policy turns out to be excessive then we correct it later with a better policy.
Personally I'm pretty convinced that assigning /48 instead of /56 to a CPE and /32 to any LIR is excessive and the large allocations of /13 to the US DoD and /19 to EU telcos are astonishingly questionable and so the policy will inevitably have to change, but I have to acknowledge that it is not so urgent that we can't wait a while to see what happens. Maybe 'the Internet of things' will take off and my house will be full of devices demanding addresses and a /48 will seem a sensible choice. I'm not holding my breath though.
cheers
Jay
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Jay Daley
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