Re: [sig-policy] IPv4 countdown policy proposal
Kosuke Ito wrote:
To define the gradual level of what extent we need to reduce
should be the next step of issue, if we found that our current
proposed approach does not provide enough time range
for communities to shift into IPv6.
Ito-san,
At the heart of the matter, my concern with your proposed policy is that
it does not deal with providing an orderly transition to a world where
only IPv6 allocations are available.
Geoff Huston in his article "Addressing the Future Internet"
http://www.circleid.com/posts/addressing_the_future_internet/
asks the question: "In designing new protocols, what lessons can be
learned from the slow deployment of IPv6 to date?"
Hopefully I will be forgiven for quoting this fragment as it seems very
relevant to the proposal:
<quote>
.....is that the significant impediment to IPv6 deployment is not
availability of network equipment, nor the capability of end systems to
support IPv6, nor the capability to roll out IPv6 support in most
service providers’ IP network. The impediment for IPv6 deployment
appears to be [the lack of] a well-grounded business case to actually do so.
The expectation with IPv6 was that the increasing scarcity of IPv4
addresses would drive service providers and their customer base to IPv6
deployment. What does not appear to be factored into this expectation is
that Network Address Translators (NATs) produce a similar outcome in
terms of virtually extending the IPv4 address space, and, additionally,
are an externalized cost to the service provider. Service providers do
not have to fund NAT deployment. For the consumer the use of embedded
NATs into the edge device is a zero cost solution.
</quote>
The article is a good if somewhat lengthy read.
Anyway the point I am trying to make is that in the continued absence of
any external driver to migrate to IPv6 coupled with a policy of no
change in IPv4 allocation principals will lead us to position where an
orderly transition will be hard to achieve.
--
Robert Gray
bob at brockhurst dot co dot nz