[arin-ppml] "Millions of Internet Addresses Are LyingIdle" (slashdot)

[michael.dillon at bt.com]

> Until and unless someone can describe, in simple layman's 
> terms, a rational transition plan to IPv6, I don't see it happening.

The laymen have already transitioned to IPv6.

> 1) What are the largest barriers that will prevent widescale 
> adoption of
> IPv6 in the next 12 months or whatever timeframe

ISPs.

> 2) How can the transition be simplified?

It can't. Changing a big network that carries millions of dollars
worth of traffic every day is never simple.

> 3) Most importantly, how can the transition be incentified?

By pushing requests up the supply chain which is one thing that
governments are trying to do by mandating that publicly funded 
agencies begin migrating to IPv6.

> There are a lot of smart people on this list, but you need to 
> step back from your techno-jargon and put your collective 
> brains to use to deal with practical issues.

Why? It might be good for society if lots of ISPs go bankrupt
because they hit a brick wall and are unable to grow their
networks two to three years from now, just as the economic
recovery picks up steam. We don't need everybody to do the
right thing. In fact, if only a dozen national/regional ISPs
do the right thing, it will probably be good enough because
they will snap up the assets of their competition in three 
years and roll out more of their successful IPv6 deployment.

> over it.  This should be a technical battle, not a legal one.

Wrong story. This is ARIN, not a place for technical battles,
but a place for cost-recovery, stewardship, and prudent 
policies.

> Anyway, once the renewal costs were equalized, then ARIN, et 
> al, should ratchet up those annual renewal costs until IPv4 
> address space usage reaches steady-state.  This would not 
> solve the transition issues, but it would provide the 
> economic incentive for all you really smart people to figure it out.

I fear that such action would simply create huge economic incentives
for someone to privatize ARIN in such a way that they make a huge
personal fortune from the piles of cash which you want to send in.

This is getting more like a Slashdot thread every second...

--Michael Dillon