[arin-discuss] IPv6 critical mass

[Michael.Dillon at radianz.com]

I've been thinking about the IPv6 fee waivers and how we might come up 
with a way of measuring the period of time for which a fee waiver is 
needed. I've come up with a fairly simple concept which I call "critical 
mass". In other words, it is appropriate to have special measures like a 
fee waiver up until IPv6 reaches critical mass.

So how do I define critical mass. It is the point at which a significant 
number of IPv6 LIRs have achieved a significant deployment of IPv6.

This now raises the question as to what is a significant number of LIRs 
and what is "significant deployment". I define these as simple numbers and 
I do not claim that my suggested numbers are definitive. Others may feel 
that they should be adjusted up or down. In any case, here are my 
suggested numbers.

IPv6 has reached critical mass in the ARIN region when 300 LIRs have each 
deployed more than 100 /48s.

Note that this measure only counts the LIRs that have deployed a 
significant number of /48s, in other words this is a subset of all LIRs in 
the ARIN region.

I don't know whether or not this should be enshrined in policy but it may 
be of use for the board to consider this approach when they discuss 
extending the IPv6 fee waiver.

-------------------------------------------------------
Michael Dillon
Capacity Planning, Prescot St., London, UK
Mobile: +44 7900 823 672    Internet: michael.dillon at radianz.com
Phone: +44 20 7650 9493    Fax: +44 20 7650 9030