[arin-ppml] Draft Policy ARIN-2019-19: Require IPv6 Before Receiving Section 8 IPv4 Transfers

[John Curran]

On 6 Nov 2019, at 5:05 PM, Michel Py <michel at arneill-py.sacramento.ca.us> wrote:
> 
> Read this paper. Serious people, funded by ICANN.
> Short : https://www.internetgovernance.org/2019/02/20/report-on-ipv6-get-ready-for-a-mixed-internet-world/
> Long : https://www.internetgovernance.org/wp-content/uploads/IPv6-Migration-Study-final-report.pdf
> The report concludes that legacy IPv4 will coexist with IPv6 indefinitely.

Michel -

I’m quite aware of the report – and I am quoted therein on page 6 arguing a very similar point; i.e. that IPv6 may lack sufficient economic incentive to overtake IPv4 - 

>> 	In comments to the IETF, for example, an engineer from BBN warned that “As currently envisioned, IPng may not be ambitious enough in the delivery of new capabilities to compete against IPv4 and the inevitable arrival of network address translation devices.” (Curran, ​RFC 1669​, 1994).

Indeed, I’ve been doing this for a while, and what you perceive as inactivity simply looks to me as slow & steady IPv6 deployment, particular in the last few years. 

> The report concludes that legacy IPv4 will coexist with IPv6 indefinitely.

Actually, the report indicates that it is not possible to make "a scientific prediction based on knowing all potentially relevant facts. There are too many variables and unknowns to be certain about the future course of standards evolution in the world for the next 20 years," and then suggests that it would be wise for the global Internet technical community to plan for a mixed IPv4-IPv6 world for the next 20 years. 

Both of which are quite reasonable statements, but doesn’t mean that IPv6 is a failure, it means that transitioning world’s global infrastructure takes a bit of time. 
(by way of similar example, consider of the number of fax machines still in use today globally, despite the abundance of more functional alternatives for decades) 

> ... My network, my rules.

You are correct in that regard - you are free to configure your network equipment any way you like…  feel free to use v4/v6/appletalk/decnet/ipx/etc. protocols and any addresses that you wish.

However, if you wish to interconnect with others, then you’ll probably want to constrain “your network” to the community rules, as that greatly promotes interoperability.  There’s some value in interacting with the others in the community to establish good policies, since the coordination that you benefit from in terms of registry-provided uniqueness has a corresponding cost of compliance with the registry policy. 

Thanks!
/John

John Curran
President and CEO
American Registry for Internet Numbers