[arin-ppml] NAT444 rumors (was Re: Looking for an IPv6 naysayer...)

Tue Feb 22 22:42:03 UTC 2011

Benson Schliesser wrote:
> On Feb 22, 2011, at 3:14 AM, Randy Bush wrote:
> 
> >> There seems to be a position, taken by others on these lists, that
> >> IPv6 is the only address family that matters.  Interestingly, this
> >> position seems to be most pronounced from people not involved in
> >> operating production networks.
> >
> > excuse me!
> 
> Hi, Randy.  I didn't mean to deny you exist; you apparently do. ;)  But
> in my sampling, operators with the opinion that 'IPv4 doesn't matter'
> represent the minority.  Of course, it also depends on how you define
> "doesn't matter".  I think that ongoing operation matters, especially
> when "ongoing" means a continued expectation of both existing and new
> customers.  It's easy to say, "burn the IPv4 bridge" so we're forced to
> migrate to IPv6.  But it's another thing to actually do it, when you're
> competing for customers that want IPv4 connectivity.
> 
> That said, we're not forced to choose only one: IPv4 vs. IPv6.  We
> should migrate to IPv6 because it makes sense - IPv4 is going to become
> more expensive and painful (to use and support).  That doesn't preclude
> us from patching IPv4 together long enough to cross the bridge first.
> 
> Thoughts?

The patching started in 1994 with RFC 1627.... how much time is needed???

Seriously, some people will not move until the path they are on is already
burning, which is why they did nothing over the last 5 years despite knowing
that the IANA pool was exhausting much faster than they had wanted to
believe. It took getting within months of exhausting the IANA pool before
the crowd woke up and noticed the path was on fire. Now you want 'just a
little more'... after which it will be 'just a little more'.

Fortunately Randy and a few others took action and demonstrated that 'this
is not hard', it just takes some effort. Pouring more effort into hack upon
hack is not making progress, it is stalling for the sake of stalling.
Consumers don't want IPv4, they want connectivity to their favorite content.
Hacks in the network to make that content appear to be available will be
expensive to maintain, and irrelevant as soon as the content has realized
the mess that has been made between them and their customers. More energy
into moving content and apps will result in less energy wasted in deploying
short lived hacks.

Tony

> 
> Cheers,
> -Benson