[ppml] The WIANA registry

[Michael.Dillon at radianz.com]

> > For more info, see the WIANA FAQ at http://www.wiana.org/faq.php

> Hmm...shouldn't WIANA simply ask an RIR for space (after justification)
> or directly petition IANA like any other well behaving internet
> activity/experiment?

What makes you think this is an experiment? I thought it was intended to 
be a permanent and growing wireless internet. 

Also, it seems that WIANA has asked one or more RIRs for space but they 
were turned down. Chances are that the WIANA people don't really 
understand the RIR system which leads to ARIN's mandate for education. And 
I doubt that people familiar with the RIR system will really understand 
what WIANA is doing without a serious effort to let go of preconcieved 
notions.

Fact is, IPv4 addresses were never used exclusively in the one single 
public internet that we call "the Internet". There have always been other 
IPv4 internets around. It just so happens that the WIANA wireless internet 
is one that is likely to grow significantly in the next few years and to 
touch just about every AS in the public Internet.

ARIN folk probably haven't come across this before because the people 
building it in the early stages have been Europeans. But now that there is 
a standard opensource meshbox design being sold in both hardware and 
software form by multiple companies, this could grow fairly quickly.

Remember, I believe that ARIN has no future as a plain old IP address 
registry because when IPv6 kicks in, the activity will die down 
significantly. However I think ARIN has a future as a central 
(continentally speaking) registry of network protocol numbers and various 
bits of technical information associated to them. The WIANA registry was 
started because these people see the need for such a central registry. We 
have the choice to ignore them or to welcome them. If we ignore them, they 
will do their thing independently. But if we welcome them then ARIN can 
begin to reshape itself into a viable organization for the long term. 

When IPv6 is everywhere, ARIN needs to have a workable business model in 
order to be viable as an organization. I believe that the business model 
will be difficult if ARIN sticks to just being an IP address and AS number 
registry.

--Michael Dillon