[ppml] Policy Proposal 2004-3: Global Addresses for Private Network Inter-Connectivity

[Michael.Dillon at radianz.com]

>> a)  the organization has no intention of connecting to
>>     the Internet-either now or in the future-but it still
>>     requires a globally unique IP address.  The organization
>>     should consider using reserved addresses from RFC1918.
>>     If it is determined this is not possible, they can be
                               ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>>     issued unique (if not Internet routable) IP addresses.
>> It does not mandate following RFC 1918

>well, that "is not possible" is pretty strong.

Hmmm... well let's say I sat down with my boss to discuss
the use of RFC 1918 addresses and he said to me, "It's not
possible to use RFC 1918 addresses because we have promised
our customers that we will use globally registered addresses".

Seems to me that I have now determined that the use of 
RFC 1918 addresses is not possible and I am in full 
compliance with RFC 2050. Of course we would all hope that
there was some technical basis for the impossibility criterion
but the RFC doesn't go that far.

However, the examples that are in the rationale for the
proposed policy do contain good technical justification,
for instance, connecting together a large number of 
existing private E911 networks over a large geographic
area. Unique addresses are needed to maintain universal
routability in such an interconnect infrastructure.

--Michael Dillon