ISP customer assignments

Tue Oct 6 00:14:08 UTC 2009

I've been trying to stay out of this discussion because it is  
pointless, however as I can't help picking at scratching mosquito  
bites either...

On Oct 5, 2009, at 4:50 PM, Michael Thomas wrote:
> I'm perplexed. At what size address would people stop worrying about
> the "finite" address space? 256 bits? 1024 bits?

The issue is that given it is a _finite_ space, its longevity depends  
exclusively on allocation policy.  Since allocation policy is  
determined by human decision, it is possible (albeit unlikely) that  
decisions will be made that will result in runout of IPv6 far sooner  
than one would predict given the vast size of the address space.

To wit, we have already had allocations of a /13, /16s, /19s, /20s,  
etc., irrespective of the fact that the organizations that obtained  
those prefixes would likely be unable to make a dent in their  
allocations by the time the sun burned out (assuming they allocate in  
a rational fashion).  Now, as an exercise to the reader, compare how  
many of those prefixes exist in IPv6 to how many there are in IPv4...

Regards,
-drc