[ppml] Re: [address-policy-wg] Is the time for conservation over?

[Michael.Dillon at radianz.com]

>>>> It's not scarce and the vast majority of IPv4 LIRs will
>>>> be deploying IPv6 sometime. So why don't we just give every single
>>>> one of them an IPv6 /32 today. Instead of creating barriers to the
>>>> adoption

>The obvious implication of this is that it pretty much guarantees the
>creation of a new and potentially much bigger swamp.

Historically, the swamp was a large block in which random 
sized blocks were allocated to organizations on a first-come
first-served basis. There was no plan to the allocations so
that an end user would get a /24 right next to a /22 going
to an ISP followed by a /23 to another end user. When an ISP
needed more space they got a discontiguous block.

With IPv6 we are somewhat smarter. To begin with, all ISP
allocations are the same size (/32) and they all come out
of a /29 reservation. The ISP's allocation can grow 8 times
before we need to use discontiguous blocks. End users are
less likely to get an allocation from the registry because
with their /48 from their ISP they can build huge internal
networks and with IPv6 they can use a second /48 from another
ISP to assign additional addresses to every one of their
IPv6 hosts and have a functional form of multihomed connectivity.

Not to mention the fact that even if we waste the entire
block of IPv6 space that is earmarked for unicast use today, 
there is still tons of IPv6 space that hasn't been earmarked
for use where we could start over again and do it right. In
other words if we did create a swamp-like situation, we have
an IPv6 safety valve that we can use to bail out of the situation.

In any case, I'm only sugesting that we give out a free /32 from
a /29 reservation to every existing ISP member of ARIN. End users
would be encouraged to apply to their upstream ISPs for a set
of /48 allocations. If all ISPs have IPv6 addresses available, then
they should be able to assign /48s to any customers who want
space regardless of whether or not the ISP has deployed any IPv6
network infrastructure yet. This may seem a bit odd, but remember that
people can use IPv6 over IPv4 tunnels so end users can use IPv6
with IPv4 ISPs if they can get IPv6 addresses. They may connect
to a v6 tunnel broker or they may just run a v6 VPN for some 
internal purpose. It's our job to remove barriers to IPv6 deployment;
not to decide whether any particular use of IPv6 is allowed or not.

--Michael Dillon