[arin-ppml] Policy Proposal: Dedicated IPv4 blockto facilitateIPv6 deployment

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net 
> [mailto:arin-ppml-bounces at arin.net] On Behalf Of Jessica (Jie Yun) Yu
> Sent: Wednesday, July 16, 2008 7:42 AM
> To: michael.dillon at bt.com; arin-ppml at arin.net
> Subject: Re: [arin-ppml] Policy Proposal: Dedicated IPv4 
> blockto facilitateIPv6 deployment
> 
> 
> >...but do you seriously think that U.S. network operators 
> will circle 
> >the
> wagons and go it alone with IPv4 while the rest of >the world 
> goes with IPv6?
> 
> Well, it's not unprecedented that US adopts different 
> standard than the rest of the world. According to 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_system, the entire world 
> (except 3 nations) has adopted Metric System for about 40 
> years while US is still using inch-pound system.
> 

In all US industrial markets the metric system is
in wide use.  If you buy a car, a bicycle, a motorcycle, or any other
item of any complexity and you want to work on it yourself, your
going to use metric tools, not English.

If your definition of the "entire world adopting the metric system"
means that every single measurement of anything in the world is out
of the metric system, you are very much mistaken.  Measurements
are done in a variety of different standards.  In threads alone there's
about 20 different popular standards, and manufacturers and industries will
adopt the most unusual ones you can imagine.  For example, in auto
air conditioning work, when the industry shifted from chlorinated
R12 the service fittings were all American Standard flare, available
at any hardware store.  The logical thing would have been to shift to
Metric ISO flare, wouldn't you think?  But guess what they did shift
to?  ACME, that's what.  A thread standard that is used for worm drives
on lathes and bench vises, coupled with a compression flare.  It's
unique in the AC industry and completely stupid because while the
intent was to prevent DIYers from connecting their old R12 stuff
to the new AC systems, you can buy ACME-to-standard flare adapters.

BSW Pipe thread, (ie: Whitworth) another non-metric standard, is used
on virtually all water pipes in the UK, and in Australia.  MPH is also
used on speed signs in the UK and Australia and until recently, in
India.

In the US, virtually EVERYTHING made for foreign export is metric.

The lesson you should draw from this analogy is that in a post-IPv4-runout
world, there are going to be "pockets" here and there of IPv4.  Most
obviously, we will likely see IPv4 handoffs from ISP's to residential
customers, for many, MANY years, long after the core is IPv6, using
proxies and translators at the ISP.  And why not, because any ISP doing
that can use private numbers at no cost?  It's analogous to the 
local gas company is going to handoff your natural gas line to your
home or business using NPT and English-measured pipe.  But, if the
gas company is buying LNG from an overseas supplier, it's likely going
to be measured in metric.

But the idea that somehow conversion to the metric system hasn't
happened in the US, or the UK, just because they have their street
speed limit signs in miles, and their water pipe sizes and threads
in century-old dinosaur standards that predate metric, is a fantasy.

Ted