[arin-ppml] Change of Use and ARIN (was: Re: AFRINIC And The Stability Of The Internet Number Registry System)

[William Herrin]

On Mon, Sep 13, 2021 at 10:54 AM Fernando Frediani <fhfrediani at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't know who was the "genius" back in the past on network vendors
> who embedded to not forward traffic for that amount of /8's market as
> Future Use. I think that was one of the most disastrous decisions ever
> made in this area of IP space.

Hi Fernando,

IIRC, this was an IETF requirement. 240/4 is not reserved for future
unicast use, it's just plain reserved. The IETF could make it
multicast or some other odd thing tomorrow and any equipment treating
it as unicast would be malfunctioning.

Some systems treat it as unicast anyway. The Linux devs break the
standards in a number of adventurous ways. Not everyone does.

At any rate, blame for 240/4 not being usable for unicast belongs with
the IETF participants who have opposed designating it so, not with the
vendors who have complied with the IETF's designation.

Regards,
Bill Herrin


-- 
William Herrin
bill at herrin.us
https://bill.herrin.us/