[ppml] Geographic v6 addresses

[Michael.Dillon at radianz.com]

For those interested in the issue of geographic addressing in IPv6
you should probably read this current draft by Tony Hain
http://www.potaroo.net/ietf/idref/draft-hain-ipv6-pi-addr-use/

I happen to disagree with his proposal to encode longitude
and latitude into such addresses because I believe that it will
cause many people to NOT use them due to fear of security
issues. Instead, I favour a scenario in which the geographic
addresses are tied to exchange point locations, not endpoint
locations. I also favour a somewhat fuzzier unit of subdivision
so that the RIRs only apply the geographic topology of the
addresses down to a certain level, certainly no more granular
than city or county. From a network perspective, there is no
reason why an organization needing PI addresses needs to
identify their exact location. It's good enough to know that they
connect to an ISP who connects to and exchange point in 
city X. That way, if the Russian embassy in Washington DC
feels the need to use Moscow IP addresses, they can tunnel
back home and do so. There may even be a perfectly valid
reason for doing this to enable diplomats and their laptops 
to easily travel back and forth.

-------------------------------------------------------
Michael Dillon
Capacity Management, 66 Prescot St., London, E1 8HG, UK
Mobile: +44 7900 823 672    Internet: michael.dillon at radianz.com
Phone: +44 20 7650 9493    Fax: +44 20 7650 9030

http://www.radianz.com
Voted "Best Network Provider 2004" Waters Magazine