IPv6 & ARIN (was Re: Class "B" forsale)

[Michael Lucas]

> > We also understand that the IPv4 system is subject to change soonish, and
> > steps need to be taken to make this as comfortable to manage as possible,
> > but the USA is (as usual) dictating to the rest of the planet how it WILL
> > be done. I find this abuse of moral responsibilty reprehensible - give us
> > an option (even in the short term) to create a nuetral registration body
> > for the African continent to relieve ARIN of the *onorous* task of
> > supporting our little backwater.
> unfortunatelly the ipv6 is like the wolf story, has been coming 
> last couple of years and who knows when it will become a reality.

I've heard a few times that IPv6 is going to change the whole IP address
shortage and registry schemes.  ARIN will lighten up or become
unnecessary, everyone will be able to get sixteen host bits, and angels
will sing.

Even with provider-based prefixes, someone has to maintain records for IP
space, root servers, and so on.  With that much space, we'll probably need
a far greater number of whois servers just to handle IP space queries.

I'd also guess and hope that the requirements for IP space won't loosen
all that much once all this space becomes available.  We've all probably
heard the (apocryphal?) horror stories about companies with six machines
on the Net that have a /8.  Imagine an ISP in 2030 AD: "Yeah, the NIC
won't even give us thirty host bits, and there's folks out there with four
thousand machines on the net and eighty host bits they got back in 2002!" :)

I dislike double-checking SWIPs and keeping track of network host counts
as much as anyone.  It's a necessary evil, though, if we're going to avoid
another IP address conversion scheme generation.

With the changes that have been made, ARIN seems to be a definite
candidate for that role.  Hopefully, we *will* have
AfriNIC/SouthAmNic/AntarcticNIC/whateverNIC by then.  IMHO, we should look
at ARIN as something that is going to be around for a long time (or,
alternately, the ancestor to something that's going to be around for a
long time). 

Regards,
Michael

-- 
Michael Lucas, AGIS DNS Administrator & Midnight Engineer