On Wed, 6 Apr 2005 Michael.Dillon@radianz.com wrote:
Could you clarify, why do you think "200 customers" fails as a meter for largeness ?
Because it assumes that the LIRs applying for address space are following a traditional ISP model in which the customers of the LIR are being connected by the network. In the case of BMW it may be the factories, or it may be the repair centres. In the case of Google it may be some set of replicated server farms in many locations.
Do you consider BMW and Google ISPs? Do you think they should be? Note that at least according to some enterprises, folks also want to advertise more specifics from each of the network demarcation points they attack to -- not wanting to backhaul internal traffic through their internal network. Giving such enteprises /32 furthers bloats the routing table with TE-induced more specifics. For those enteprises, it might be better to have local-provider aggegatable addresses, which don't need these traffic engineering properties.
But if there has to be a bar, then perhaps it could be restated as: "the LIR intends to allocate at least 200 /48 blocks within the next two years". On a commercial level, that still allows a new startup ISP who intends to offer IPv6-only network access, to get the addresses that they need for their business plan. But it also allows for all the existing IPv4 network operators, many of whom are not ISPs, to get IPv6 addresses to transition their networks.
The current policy (the relevant bits wrt your idea) is: c) plan to provide IPv6 connectivity to organisations to which it will assign /48s by advertising that connectivity through its single aggregated address allocation; and d) have a plan for making at least 200 /48 assignments to other organisations within two years. What you said, "the LIR intends to allocate at least 200 /48 blocks within the next two years" seems to be roughly equal to the above, except by removing the "other organizations" rule. Was this the intent -- because the current policy already allows a /32 to (if the other conditions are met) new ISPs which don't _yet_ have 200 customers ? Or did you mean something slightly different? -- Pekka Savola "You each name yourselves king, yet the Netcore Oy kingdom bleeds." Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings