[ppml] Proposed Policy: IPv4 Countdown

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: David Conrad [mailto:drc at virtualized.org]
>Sent: Monday, March 19, 2007 2:58 PM
>To: Ted Mittelstaedt
>Cc: Public Policy Mailing List
>Subject: Re: [ppml] Proposed Policy: IPv4 Countdown
>
>
>Hi,
>
>On Mar 19, 2007, at 2:38 PM, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
>>> IANA does not control the "global BGP network".
>> I disagree.
>
>Then you are wrong.  Really.  I can speak authoritatively on this.
>
>> In other words, if IANA were to decide 2010 was "flag day" they could
>> merely announce that all IPv4 allocations as of that date were
>> unmaintained, non-tracked, and shut down whois queries for them.
>
>a) IANA doesn't decide these sorts of things.  It implements policies  
>others, like the RIRs, define.
>b) IANA does not maintain, track, or provide whois service for the  
>vast majority of IPv4 allocations.  We maintain a top-level  
>delegation (textual) chart for the /8s IANA has handed out over the  
>years.  Nothing more, nothing less.

OK, so change that to say "if all the RIR's"

>c) Even if IANA did maintain this sort of data, if we were to stop,  
>it would mean essentially nothing to the various ISPs and end users  
>that would continue to use IPv4.
>
>You seem to have a view that there is a responsible adult who can  
>make the hard decisions.  That entity does not exist. 

That isn't true.  There is always a "responsible adult" lurking around
out there, you just want to stick your head in the sand and ignore
it.  That "adult" is called the government, and it's form is of the
various legislatures and courts and dictators out there who run 
things in the world.

You seem to think that these governments don't give a hoot if we
all botch up this IPv4 thing and end up with a train wreck on the
Internet because nobody stepped forward and implemented the hard
decisions.

I can tell you they do.  If we don't do it, they will, with legislation.
And the results will not be pretty.  That is what happened to the
DNS ssytem.  Do you want a repeat?

>The entire  
>addressing system works because people agree it works and cooperate  
>to define how.  That's why Lee, John, et al, have asked for proposals.
>

It doesen't matter if we all agree on a proposal, it matters if the
proposal we all agree on is carried out.

For those who advocate a weak numbering authority, which is what we have
now (no offense intended) there is little controversy for them to do their
jobs.  But human nature being what it is, when we run out of IPv4 at
some day in the future, there will be some networks out there who make
decisions based on what is best for them and damn the rest of the Internet.
A weak central authority won't be able to rein them in.

What do you think the likely outcome will be if a large network with many
very rich online porno customers needs more numbers and makes a request of
ARIN and is denied because there are no more IPv4 numbers?

a) they will tell their customers "sorry no more servers"

b) they will just grab a random IPv4 block allocated to someone else
that they don't think is being used.

Ted