[arin-ppml] Straw poll on special policy for electric energy industry

[Fred Baker]

My two yen... I'm very much in favor of having the electric industry  
use IPv6, for the same reason I'm interested in seeing the Internet  
deploy it. I would suggest a slightly different policy, however, as  
there is current use of IPv4 in the grid that one doesn't want to  
disrupt any more than one would want to disrupt a currently  
functioning ISP by suddenly refusing it IPv4 addresses.

The policy I would suggest is a blanket policy: IPv4 addresses are  
available to ARIN members if and only if they can demonstrate progress  
on IPv6 deployment. Such progress would include equipment configured,  
routing, customers turning it on, and so on.

On Oct 5, 2009, at 2:50 PM, <michael.dillon at bt.com> <michael.dillon at bt.com 
 > wrote:

>
> This is just a question to see what people think about creating a
> special policy that applies to companies wishing to provide
> infrastructure for the electric utility industry Smart Grid.
>
> Basically, the situation is this as described by Richard Shockey on  
> the
> IETF list:
>
>   Myself and others are deeply concerned by how this effort is
> developing.
>   There is no current consensus on what the communications  
> architecture
> of the
>   SmartGrid is or how IP actually fits into it.
>
>   The Utility Industry does not understand the current IPv4 number
> exhaust
>   problem and the consequences of that if they want to put a IP  
> address
> on
>   every Utility Meter in North America.
>
>   What is equally troubling is that many of the underlying protocols
> that
>   utilities wish to deploy are not engineered for IPv6. We have an
> example of
>   that in a recent ID.
>
> Basically, what I am suggesting is that we introduce a special policy
> that
> bans the Electric Utility industry from receiving any IPv4  
> addressing at
> all,
> either direct ARIN allocations or ISP assignments, if those addresses
> are intended
> for any kind of Smart Grid application. This ban would also apply to
> third parties
> and subcontractors who might be operating components of the Smart  
> Grid.
>
> Note that this special policy would not apply to any other use of IP  
> in
> an
> electric utility company, only to the Smart Grid.
>
> This would send a clear message to the utility industry that there is
> simply not enough IPv4 address space left for a new major user, and
> would
> help them get their plans around IPv6 worked out earlier, rather than
> wasting their time and money on something that will NEVER fly.
>
> Seems to me this fits well within ARIN's educational purpose.
>
> If possible, we should try to word this policy in such a way that it
> could be adopted by the other RIRs because the Smart Grid movement is
> now world wide.
>
> --Michael Dillon
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