Using IPv6 with prefixes shorter than a /64 on a LAN

Wed Jan 26 05:33:55 UTC 2011

On Wed, 26 Jan 2011 11:53:23 +0700
Roland Dobbins <rdobbins at arbor.net> wrote:

> 
> On Jan 26, 2011, at 11:37 AM, Adrian Chadd wrote:
> 
> > But simply assuming that the IPv6 address space will forever remain that - only unique host identifiers - I think is disingenious at best. :-)
> 
> I think 'disingenuous' is too strong a word - 'overly optimistic' better reflects the position, IMHO.
> 
> ;>
> 
> In addition to all the extremely valid use-cases you outline, there's also the concept of one-time-use prefixes which likely will end up being used at the molecular level in manufacturing/supply-chain applications, lifetime assignments to individuals as a matter of citizenship which will be retired upon their deaths/disenfranchisement, nanite communications used to do things like clean plaque out of people's arteries in lieu of angioplasty, and a whole host of new applications we haven't even dreamed of, yet.
> 
> The supreme irony of this situation is that folks who're convinced that there's no way we can even run out of addresses often accuse those of us who're plentitude-skeptics of old-fashioned thinking; whereas there's a strong case to be made that those very same vocal advocates of the plentitude position seem to be assuming that the assignment and consumption of IPv6 addresses (and networking technology and the Internet in general) will continue to be constrained by the current four-decade-old paradigm into the foreseeable future.
> 

The correct assumption is that most people will try and usually
succeed at follow the specifications, as that is what is required to
successfully participate in a protocol (any protocol, not just
networking ones). IPv4 history has shown that most people will. 

People who argue against current Ipv6 address use projections are doing
so with an unstated assumption that most people won't follow the
specifications. Once you make that assumption, then anything at all can
be used as an example to created FUD about running out of addresses,
including the equally valid example that people will close their eyes
and bash the number pad when entering IPv6 prefix or address
information. The only way to prevent absolutely the misconfiguration of
protocol parameters is to not make them configurable. Pretty much
impossible to do with networking prefixes or addresses.