[ppml] Proposed Policy: IPv4 Countdown

[Stephen Sprunk]

Thus spake <michael.dillon at bt.com>
>> Imagine a day in which a lot of the network outside of the ARIN
>> region is IPv6 and only ARIN is still using IPv4.  We'd have a
>> network ripped in half (well, not 50/50) with our region falling
>> behind the rest of the world (in IPvX).
>
> In my version of this thought experiment, the ARIN region quickly
> realized that roughly 90% of their infrastructure was capable of
> running IPv6 with only a software upgrade so they did upgrade.
> Problem solved.

Nice thought experiment, but 99.9999% of the routers in the ARIN region (you 
know, all those boxes consumers and SoHos are sitting behind) don't support 
IPv6 and the vendors have shown absolutely no interest in adding it.  Not in 
their new products, and certainly not in the millions of old boxes out 
there.  And, even if it were available, how do you plan on reaching out to 
millions of Joe Sixpacks and Grandmas and convince them to upgrade?

An IPv6 core is irrelevant if none of the endpoints can reach it.  Vista 
finally has v6 on by default, and maybe 20% of users will have upgraded by 
the end of this year, but they still won't be able to reach an IPv6 router 
even two hops away at their ISP.

S

Stephen Sprunk      "Those people who think they know everything
CCIE #3723         are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
K5SSS                                             --Isaac Asimov