On 30 June 2011 09:22, Shane Kerr <shane@time-travellers.org> wrote:
Regarding the implications on policy... we seem to have a situation where the people for and against increased IPv6 PI seem to think that the other side must prove their position somehow. These ideas are all based on potential future impact, and historically predictions about the future have been very difficult.
Since we are talking about theories about future impact, we're kind of like economists: the only real way to test a theory is to implement it and see what happens. I will note that *not* changing the policy is also implementing a policy, so no matter what we do, we're running an experiment based on half-baked theories of how the Internet works. More research will certainly inform the discussion and possibly lead to better policies, but policies will never be based on perfect understanding.
Okay let me put the case from this side, the number of 70k was based on quoted figure of current v4 PI assignments and the assumption (which I think is only logical) that each one of those assignments will want a v6 assignment at some point soon. This does not account for any growth in the desire for PI space that might appear based on people deciding that PI would a "better route" for their network design. The current global routing table for IPv6 is 5-6k (give or take) implementing this policy (as currently structured) would see that grow to around 20k (just with v4 -> v6 requirements) in a vert short space of time, now I don't know about your network but slow gradual growth is okay as you can budget for replacing and upgrading a normal cycle. A sudden spike like this is likely to cause two things to happen, first it'll trip over a raft of memory bugs that vendors haven't found yet because they didn't think the v6 table would grow so quickly and secondly it'll put those people with less available capital off deploying v6 as their hardware won't be up to scratch. I am happy to be convinced that I'm wrong and this won't be a problem *but* I'm still not convinced that this change is the best approach to solving "the problem" maybe the authors could pitch in with their problem statement so we can see what the actual problem is in the first place. J -- James Blessing 07989 039 476