[arin-ppml] Draft Policy 2010-10 (Global Proposal):GlobalPolicy for IPv4 Allocations by the IANA Post Exhaustion- Last Call (textrevised)

[Owen DeLong]

> 
>> There are too many people now in the ARIN community that just want to
>> bury IPv4 and really aren't interested in mining possibly usable IPv4
>> from Legacy resources.  They want to believe if we just ignore it we
>> can leave IPv4 behind in a few years and switch everything to IPv6 and
>> they won't believe this isn't going to happen right away until it just
>> doesn't happen right away.  Maybe they are right.  I just hope that if
>> they are not, that they start mining.
> 
> I think they are wrong, and within 12 months, the spaghetti is going to
> start to hit the fan.

First, I don't think that is an entirely fair characterization.

I do think that our efforts are better spent transitioning to IPv6 than attempting
to mine for diminishing (non-existant?) IPv4 resources.

Even if we succeed in mining for IPv4, it's a temporary solution where deploying
IPv6 offers a sustainable solution for a much longer term.

Is everything going to magically switch overnight? No.

However, if you're faced with a post-runout network deployment, the question
isn't so much one of whether the world has gone IPv6 yet or not as it is one
of whether it makes sense to take heroic measures to add your network to the
IPv4 network living on life support at best, or, add it to a growing and vibrant
IPv6 internet.

If you're expanding an existing deployment beyond the existing address space,
then, it's a slightly harder version of the same question. Limitations or issues
with your legacy software may make IPv4 temporarily more attractive, but,
if you go down that path, make sure you do it with the realization that it is a
dead end and you will still have to reverse course and go down the IPv6
road later.

Finally, if you think it's going to take 12 months for the IPv4 spaghetti to make
contact with the whirling blades, you aren't paying attention. I think it will
be somewhat sooner. All the more reason to focus on IPv6 deployment now
rather than continue throwing resources at IPv4 rescue efforts.

Owen