[arin-discuss] ARIN Travel

[Robert E. Seastrom]

"Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm at ipinc.net> writes:

>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Robert E. Seastrom [mailto:rs at seastrom.com]
>>Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 11:55 AM
>>To: Ted Mittelstaedt
>>Cc: John Curran; G.Hiscott; arin-discuss at arin.net
>>Subject: Re: [arin-discuss] ARIN Travel
>>
>>
>>
>>"Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm at ipinc.net> writes:
>>
>>> I actually think that right now ARIN should be working more on
>>> visiting shows that the major networks would have staff attending.
>>> There are still a great many transit providers out there who
>>> are not routing IPv6 at the current time.  There is no point in
>>> getting the customer base stirred up and demanding IPv6 when
>>> it's not available from their network provider, they will just
>>> lose interest in it.
>>
>>Actually, it is quite the opposite.  Providers who survived the bubble
>>bursting have learned their lesson about the "if you build it they
>>will come" mentality; they're only setting up network resources in
>>direct response to customer demands.
>
> I figured someone would say that.
>
> I have to disagree on this.  We have had only 1 customer ask about
> IPv6 and that was 2 years ago, and the guy was a techie on a home
> DSL line.
>
> Yet I have just finished going through channels with our feeds to
> get an IPv6 adoption plan into place. 

It seems that ARIN's outreach to-date (meetings, ppml) has worked in
your case, and it no doubt helps that you're running an ISP that is
small enough to have no capex issues with making this happen (I enjoy
a similar situation with the micro-isp I'm running for my personal
colo, so I can dig it).  Much bigger issue running a regional or
national backbone.

> One of them - Time Warner
> Telecom - I just talked to the network guy in charge of this today.
> They are planning on going live 3rd quarter 2008 - in direct response
> to the GSA thing.  The guy told me he gets about 1 query a month from
> an ISP regarding IPv6 and he's in charge of it for the entire TWT
> global network.

One guy in charge of it for a whole network the size of TWT sounds
about right.  They will put more resources behind it when appropriate
in response to customer demand (see above).  I would say that "ipv6
one man band" is likely similar in many if not most continental scale
networks at this juncture.

> TW Telecom is probably very representative of the midlevel transit
> providers.  They don't do a lot of government work but it's easier
> to CYA by just getting IPv6 running then you don't have to deal
> with some saleperson somewhere in the company who gets hamstrung on
> a bid that is somehow tied to a GSA contract.  I would imagine that
> a lot of the other transit ASs are starting to look into this
> issue for the same reasons.  This is the group that ARIN needs to
> be pushing.

On the contrary, there is no need for ARIN to be pushing them if they
are already doing this on their own, on a schedule which they can
justify.  Having ARIN do outreach is not going to result in more
FTEs...  but having more customer requests for turnups than the sole
practitioner can handle sure will!

> The retail ISP's who are the next rung down in the
> chain are going to need outreach too - but I think it's still too
> early for that.  Give it until 2009.  The midlevel transit providers
> have plenty of reasons other than GSA contracts that appeal to their
> self-interest to get them motivated to get plugged in.

If you have any suggestions or recommendations for venues in which
this could occur, please make yourself heard - I'm sure ARIN staff
would welcome more input in this arena (and hey, nobody will *ever*
accuse a trip to Portland of being a "junket"!)

                                        ---Rob