v6 subnet size for DSL & leased line customers

Wed Dec 26 12:55:25 UTC 2007

> If the ops community doesn't provide enough addresses and a way to use
> them then the vendors will do the same thing they did in v4. It's not
> clear to me where their needs don't coincide in this case.
> 
> there are three legs to the tripod
> 
> 	network operator
> 	user
> 	equipment manufacturer
> 
> They have (or should have) a mutual interest in:
> 
> 	Transparent and automatic configuration of devices.
> 	The assignment of globally routable addresses to internet
> 	connected devices
> 	the user having some control over what crosses the boundry
> 	between their network and the operators.

Yes, well, that sounds fine, but I think that we've already hashed over
at least some of the pressures on businesses in this thread.  I've
tried to focus on what's in the Subject:, and have mostly ignored other
problems, which would include things such as cellular service, where I
suspect that the service model is such that they'll want to find a way
to allocate users a /128 ...

There is, further, an effect which leads to "equipment mfr" being split
into "netwk equipment mfr" and "cpe equipment mfr", because the CPE guys 
will be trying to build things that'll work for the end user, working
around any brokenness, etc.  The problem space is essentially polarized, 
between network operators who have their own interests, and users who
have theirs.

So, as /engineers/ for the network operators, the question is, what can
we do to encourage/coerce/force the businesses on our side of the 
equation to allocate larger rather than smaller numbers of bits, or find
other solutions?

What could we do to encourage, or better yet, mandate, that an ISP end-
user connection should be allocated a minimum of /56, even if it happens 
to be a cellular service?  ( :-) )

What do we do about corporate environments, or any other environment where
there may be pressure to control topology to avoid "DHCP PD" to devices
added to the network on an ad-hoc basis?

Is it actually an absolutely unquestionable state of affairs that the
smallest autoconfigurable subnet is a /64?  Because if not, there are
options there ...  but of course, that leads down a road where an ISP may
not want to allocate as much as a /64 ...

What parts of this can we tackle through RIR policy?  RFC requirements?
Best practice?  Customer education?  ( :-) )  Other ideas?

... JG
-- 
Joe Greco - sol.net Network Services - Milwaukee, WI - http://www.sol.net
"We call it the 'one bite at the apple' rule. Give me one chance [and] then I
won't contact you again." - Direct Marketing Ass'n position on e-mail spam(CNN)
With 24 million small businesses in the US alone, that's way too many apples.