[ppml] IPv4 "Up For Grabs" proposal

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> In short, IPv4 will NEVER "go away"  Your proposing a future 
> were we add IPv6, and nobody ever gives up IPv4 resources.  
> So the Internet merely becomes an Internet of both IPv6 and 
> IPv4, not an Internet of IPv4 only or an Internet of
> IPv6 only.

First of all, it is not ARIN's place to make IPv4 go away. It is a
perfectly good technology that has proven itself in the field. Just like
the Intel 8080 architecture, it will probably not go away for a long,
long time. Instead it will be used in areas where IPv6 is immature or
where Internet connectivity is NOT a desired characteristic.

As far as IPv4 on the Internet is concerned, if people want to continue
using transition technologies for the next 20 years, then ARIN should
support that use by maintaining a proper IPv4 registry, in-addr.arpa,
and so on.

> However, if we do this, then don't you see that ALL IPv4 
> holders, not just the legacy ones, will never have any 
> incentive to drop IPv4.

Incentives are not manufactured. When you try to manufacture incentives,
you often make yourself the target of hatred instead of providing the
incentive that you intended. ARIN, quite rightly, does not manufacture
incentives. The most ARIN does is to try and make sure that ARIN itself
is not a barrier to IPv6 adoption because ARIN realizes that IPv6 is the
only way to resolve the problem of IPv4 address exhaustion.

--Michael Dillon