[ppml] IPv6 assignment - proposal for change to nrpm

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> I'll never use the IP's, so apparently, I'll 
> be hoarding them.

People who understand IPv6 architecture would not consider this
"hoarding". If you announce that /32 then you are "using" the addresses
that you were allocated, as they were meant to be used.

> Although we (the small SP's) have signed a v6 RSA, are we 
> going to get the same ridicule and harassment in the future 
> that the Legacy IPv4 folk are seeing today?

Unlikely because in the future, people will better understand the IPv6
architecture. It was the intent of the architects to allocate/assign
every organization (and private residence) more IPv6 addresses than they
could ever use. This solves part of the renumbering problem; the part
caused by changing the prefix length due to growth of your network.

IPv6 addresses are assigned to interfaces, not to hosts. The number of
interfaces per host is growing and can be expected to continue to grow
for some time as virtualization becomes a core part of operating
systems. You may use more IPv6 addresses than you think.

> If this is the case, then I feel for the legacy folk. I 
> explicitly tried to get a smaller chunk of the IPv6 pie, but 
> alas, the request was futile.

Indeed it was futile because there is no shortage of IPv6 addresses,
therefore no need to conserve them. And conserving IPv6 addresses leads
to WASTAGE of slots in the global routing table. By accepting more IPv6
addresses than you will ever need you are helping to conserve space in
the global routing table which is a more valuable resource, and has
constraints which can't be wiped away by adding bits to the address.

> but it is really upsetting when 
> people are already using the word 'hoarding'

I agree. On the other hand, these people are demonstrating their
ignorance. Whenever you get a sea change like this, some people are so
steeped in the old ways that they will never change. They are like the
buggy whip manufacturers who don't understand what all the fuss is about
noisy, smelly and unreliable horseless carriages. They are convinced
that the new thing is a fad and the fuss will all blow over, so they
stick to the knitting and keep making top-notch buggy whips.

This is one of the facts of life. You have to choose whether you go
along with the flow, or try to resist and stick with tradition. In the
case of IPv4, it is likely to be in widespread use for another 20 years,
at first on the Internet, and later in private networks. You could spend
the rest of your career with IPv4 and ignore IPv6 entirely. But most of
us, have to go along with the flow because that is where the network
growth will be, starting in 2 or 3 years from now.

--Michael Dillon

P.S. The virtualization trend that I mentioned, may cause IPv4 address
exhaustion to happen sooner than we think.