[ppml] [address-policy-wg] Re: Can the RIRs bypass the IETF and do their own thing?

[Leo Bicknell]

In a message written on Tue, May 15, 2007 at 08:09:25AM -1000, Randy Bush wrote:
> how far down a phony power struggle and pissing contest are folk going to
> let jordi drag this group while trying to get policy passed based on an
> unpublished internet-draft?

It's not a power struggle, it's a power vacuum.  The IVTF has been
consumed by internal politics that have resulted in a process that
produces standards that are a dollar short and a day late.  The "V"
in the IVTF like this as it allows them to set proprietary standards
and reap the economic benefits.  Just look at cases like how long
it took the IETF to come up with something like VRRP, Cisco had
HSRP in 1987, and the IETF took another 10 years to release a VRRP
standard in 1998.  10 years is an entire boom and bust cycle to
this industry, one which the IETF has a great track record of
missing.

In the case of IPv6 the IETF failed to produce any addressing
guidelines that worked in the real world.  They seem to have ignored
30 years of history, thrown the baby out and kept the bath water,
and are now surprised that everyone is unhappy.  I can't point to
a single group involved with IPv6 who thinks we've done the right
thing so far, it's rather impressive when you can make everyone
unhappy.

I think ULA-Central is a terrible band-aid that completely ignores
the real problem once again; that we need a designed in way to
connect disparate networks without hitting a numbering conflict
every single time as we do with RFC 1918 space.  Rather than address
that problem during the design phase, the IETF came up with some
half brained ideas that are difficult and costly to implement, and
have huge side effects.

However, I do believe if people want a "ULA-Central" type service,
and they want it today the RIR process is the only way to get it.
It's quite clear to me, and I think everyone else that the IETF is
going to provide no additional useful input prior to the real world
deployment of IPv6 on a wide scale.

The IETF has built us a boat.  The front half is an aircraft carrier,
the back half is a wooden sailing vessel.  There are plenty of life
preservers on board, but they are all infant sized.  They have stocked
coal in the bunker to fuel the nuclear reactor, and put cured meat
in the state of the art refrigerator.  They even suggested we get
Gilligan as a Captain, since he has experience with exactly how we'll
end up.

No surprise some of us on shore looking at the vessel we're about
to ride in are trying to buy a satellite phone and an inflatable
dinghy before we shove off.

Perhaps rather than attacking those who are merely trying to keep
from drowning, your harsh words would be better used on the IETF
who put us in this position.

-- 
       Leo Bicknell - bicknell at ufp.org - CCIE 3440
        PGP keys at http://www.ufp.org/~bicknell/
Read TMBG List - tmbg-list-request at tmbg.org, www.tmbg.org
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 187 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://lists.arin.net/pipermail/arin-ppml/attachments/20070516/946afbd0/attachment.sig>