ARIN IPv6 Policy Proposed

[Antonio Querubin]

On Mon, 12 Mar 2001, Member Services wrote:

> After a discussion concerning the IAB/IESG recommendation for IPv6 address
> space allocation on the ARIN IPv6 WG mail list, the ARIN Advisory Council
> is proposing that the following be the ARIN policy concerning IPv6 address
> space allocation:
>
> "ARIN will allocate IPv6 addresses according to the Internet Draft
> <http://search.ietf.org/internet-drafts/draft-iesg-ipv6-addressing-recommendations-00.txt>.
> This policy will be regularly reviewed and modified subject to operational
> experience."

The draft has the following recommendations:

1.  Home network subscribers, connecting through on-demand or
    always-on connections should received a /48.
2.  Small and large enterprises should received a /48.
3.  Very large subscribers could receive a /47 or slightly shorter
    prefix, or multiple /48's.
4.  Networks with a clearly expressed disinterest in subnetting
    should received a /64.
5.  Mobile networks, such as vehicles, cellular phones should
    received a static /64 prefix to allow the connection of multiple
    devices and, depending on the architecture, a /128 for a
    MobileIP care-of address [MobIPv6].
6.  Subscribers with a single dial-up node preferring a transient
    address should received a /128.


Just some random thoughts on several of the above recommendations:

With regard to #1 I'm curious as to what constitutes a 'home network
subscriber' in this draft?  Our experience with what we generally consider
home network subscribers to be is that none subnet at all.  That being the
case, why assign a /48 when a /64 is quite adequate while still providing
the home user with full capability?

With regard to #2 most small organizations do not bother to subnet - they
generally use switches to divide up traffic.  Subnetting requires routers
of which the majority aren't IPv6-aware anyway.  Another alternative for
#2 would be to combine it with #3:  small enterprises be assigned one or
more /64s while very large enterprises receive a /48.  It seems to me that
we should use a SLA for it's intended purpose - that it be specific to a
'site'.  But if sites are being assigned /48 where does that leave the
NLA?

It seems that #1 and #2 above could/should be qualified with having a
requirement to subnet or be geographically dispersed.